HOT Screen - next generation Drug R&D

From linear thinking to complex models or from late failure to early success

The practice of growing human cells in vitro over the last three decades has typically used a single clonal type of cell that is modified to proliferate indefinitely outside of the body in a laboratory dish. These “transformed” cell lines, although useful for some experiments, often have little in common with the cells found in the body. Conversely, human Co-Culture cell systems are made with a mixture of primary cell types that more closely resembles actual physiological conditions. This Co-Culture containing multiple primary cell types creates a three-dimensional architecture much as they do in the body, providing a more life-like setting in which to test compounds for drug and product development.

• Complexity is the basis of drug effects on the human immune system
• Complexity in vitro, handled properly, is an enormous chance and definitely not a problem
• Complexity should therefore never be ignored in drug R&D
• Complex organotypic model improve drug activity profiling substantially
• HOT culture models provide access to physiological complexity even at very early stages of drug discovery in vitro

The HOT Co-Culture platform - old, new and future systems

In use for more than a decade
HOT-Co gut: human intestinal epithelium + whole blood
HOT-Co joint: human synovial cells + whole blood
HOT-Co lung I: human alveolar cells + whole blood
HOT-Co skin: human 3-D epidermis + whole blood

New systems (already in use)
HOT-Co vein: human endothelial cells + whole blood
HOT-Co lung II: human bronchial epithelial cells + whole blood

Development completed
HOT-Co diabetes: human fat cells + whole blood