HμREL, a provider of advanced tissue constructs and microfluidic cell-based assay platforms for preclinical drug development, has entered into a multi-phase R&D collaboration with Sanofi U.S.

Sanofi will fund a range of studies designed to evaluate the utility of HμREL's cell-based products and technologies for preclinical drug development. Different aspects of the collaboration will be carried out in HμREL's laboratories in North Brunswick, N.J., and  in various Sanofi R&D locations in both the U.S. and Europe. The companies intend to share the results of their collaboration through one or more co-authored, peer-reviewed scientific publications.

The initial phase of the collaboration will aim to validate HμREL's HμRELhumanTM 3D liver tissue co-culture for use across an array of experimental requirements typically addressed during the preclinical phase.

Subsequent phases of the collaboration are planned to broaden the range of validated applications, as well as to cover HμREL's HμRELflow microfluidic assay platform, in which the liquid culture medium containing the molecular entity under study is recirculated in a microfluidic pathway, analogously to how the bloodstream recirculates through the various organs of the body.

HμREL’s patent-pending HμRELhuman in vitro liver tissue construct utilizes a proprietary co-culture of primary cryopreserved human hepatocytes (i.e., actual human liver cells) to deliver highly sensitive and accurate predictions of the liver-mediated effects of drugs on humans.