Bioengineered human bone marrow model for drug discovery

This technology is a bioengineered bone marrow system that can be applied to study various human diseases, toxicity responses, and immune functions in vitro.

Unmet Need: Physiologic 3D bone marrow in vitro model

Hematological diseases, which include leukemias, lymphomas, and anemias, are difficult to model accurately in vitro, due to the complex interactions and crosstalk between different cells, tissues, and the three-dimensional structure of the bone marrow. Current animal models for blood disorders such as acute myeloid lymphoma also poorly recapitulate human physiology, thereby hindering drug discovery in these diseases. As such, there is a need for an in vitro bone marrow model capable of accurately reflecting the complexities of this tissue to facilitate therapeutic research.

The Technology: Three-dimensional model of bone marrow

This technology is a model of the bone marrow consisting of a mixture of osteoblasts, endothelial cells, and mesenchymal stem and stromal cells, all induced from pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These various cell types are housed in a three-dimensional, niche-like microtissue environment in a spatially-organized fashion that recapitulates human bone marrow. This engineered bone marrow model can respond to drug treatment, cytokine cues, and radiation damage, and can furthermore be created with patient iPSCs and cultured for up to 12 weeks, making it useful as a personalized medicine tool to screen therapeutics.

Applications:

• Research model and personalized medicine too to screen treatments for hematological cancers
• Research model for studying anemia
• Research model for studying genetic bone marrow diseases including Pearson syndrome and congenital amegakaryocytic thrombocytopenia
• Research model to study infection (e.g. viral response), inflammation, and autoinflammatory diseases

Advantages:

• Consists of both multiple bone marrow cell types and a three-dimensional scaffolding reflective of bone structure
• Cells are spatially organized in the tissue in a way that recapitulates human bone marrow
• Scalable for drug screening
• Long lasting to ensure time for screening

Lead Inventor:

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, Ph.D.

Patent Information:

Patent Pending (WO/2024/020424)

Related Publications:

• Tavakol DN, Nash TR, Kim Y, He S, Fleischer S, Graney PL, Brown JA, Liberman M, Tamargo M, Harken A, Ferrando AA, Amundson S, Garty G, Azizi E, Leong KW, Brenner DJ, Vunjak-Novakovic G. Modeling and countering the effects of cosmic radiation using bioengineered human tissues. Biomaterials. 2023 Oct; 301:122267.

Tech Ventures Reference:

• IR CU22388

• Licensing Contact: Beth Kauderer