36 THE SCIENTIST | the-scientist.com
CN Bio
PhysioMimix™
OOC Multi-Organ
Microphysiological
SystemCN Bio released the PhysioMimix™ OOC
Multi-Organ Microphysiological System
in March 2021 after about 10 years
of research and development through
a collaboration between the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) and MIT. A microfluidic organ-
on-a-chip platform undergirds the Physio-
Mimix™ Multi-Organ System and allows
scientists to connect individual organ-on-
a-chip models—for example, a liver model
with a gut or lung model also developed
by CN Bio—for disease research and drug
development, explains company CEO
David Hughes.Each chip contains millions of organ-
specific human cells that can be con-
nected in a multi-well plate format. The
system mimics biological conditions by
allowing media recirculation to differ-
ent organ culture compartments, says
Hughes; this “creates data that’s more pre-
dictive of human response” compared to
insights gleaned from animal models. He
adds the product is geared toward “provid-
ing more-accurate, human-relevant infor-
mation to researchers in the pharmaceuti-
cal industry.”
Martin Trapecar, a Johns Hopkins
immunologist and bioengineer, uses this
system in his lab to study the effects of
autoimmune and autoinflammatory dis-
eases on gut and liver tissue. He says that
the product presents a more realistic model
to develop regenerative and personalized
therapies and “eliminates a lot of the prob-
lems with studying immunology.... The
other benefit is it gives me very granularinsight into how tissue-tissue and tissue-
immune interactions inform the behavior
of the whole system.” According to a com-
pany announcement, CN Bio considers this
technology a milestone toward an eventual
“body-on-a-chip” system.
The company declined to share the price
of the system.HOCKBERGER:“[T]his product improves
on the original system (launched in 2018) to
enable a wider user base.... Cool!"THE JUDGES
PHILIP HOCKBERGER
Associate professor of neuroscience in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.
He is recognized internationally for his leadership role in research core facilities and for promoting
the careers of core scientists.KIM KAMDAR
Managing partner at Domain Associates, a health care–focused venture fund that creates and invests
in biopharma, device, and diagnostics companies. She began her career as a scientist and pursued
drug discovery research at Novartis for nine years.H. STEVEN WILEY
Senior research scientist and laboratory fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. He published
some of the earliest computer models of receptor regulation and is known for developing a variety of
quantitative biochemical and optical assays as a basis for validating computational models of cell processes.© CN BIO