Mar 19, 2019
Human stem cells were once viewed primarily as regenerative materials for tissue repair through cell therapies. However, advances in technologies and protocols mean that induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are now playing an increasingly important role in disease modelling and human cell-based screening assays. This episode explores what this means for drug discovery.
The pharmaceutical industry’s current issue with attrition in the R&D pipeline is complex and multifaceted. However, few would disagree that one of the biggest factors contributing to the poor rate of success in drug discovery is the lack of reliable and translationally useful disease models.
No matter how carefully studies are designed, animal models and immortalised cell lines cannot reflect the full complexity of human biology and disease mechanisms. While the use of human primary cells or human tissue samples is an attractive alternative for drug screening, these materials can be difficult to obtain, and require additional ethical considerations.
Original article by Abby Edwards and Dr Richard Massey, of
Biostrata
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