Research Projects

iLite - Innovations for Liver Tissue Engineering

The goals of this project are to build an external bioartificial liver, a liver-on-chip as well as a bioengineered liver. In the present project, bioconstruction of the liver will be performed by the assembly of building blocks –liver organoids, vascular networks and biliary networks- built separately and then integrated into a scaffold. 

The consortium includes:

• Biopredic International
• DHU HepatInnow
• Hôpital Saint-Louis (AP-HP)
• Université de Paris Saclay
• CEA
• INSERM
• INRIA
• 3 other companies

Predicting long-term toxic effects using computer models based on systems characterization of organotypic cultures.

NOTOX is one of the building block projects of the European research initiative SEURAT (Safety Evaluation Ultimately Replacing Animal Testing) funded by EU-FP7 HEALTH programme and the European Cosmetics Association (Cosmetics Europe).
The total funding for the cluster projects is 50 million €. This initiative with six projects as building blocks aims at the common strategy “towards the replacement of current repeated dose systemic toxicity testing in human safety assessment”.

The consortium includes:

• Biopredic International
• Universität des Saarlandes
• Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
• Stichting Het Nederlands Kanker Instituut - Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek Ziekenhuis
• Karolinska Institutet
• Insilico Biotechnology AG
• Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique
• Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH
• Forschungsgesellschaft für Arbeitsphysiologie und Arbeitsschutz e.V
• Weizmann Institute of Science
• Cambridge Cell Networks Ltd
• European Research and Project Office GmbH

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Real time in-vitro evaluation of carcinogenic potential of contaminants

The Genotrace project aims at bringing major technological innovations to develop a new micronucleus (MN) assay, that will allow the monitoring of both dynamically and in real time, the progression of chromosome damages and the signal of a genotoxic reporter on HepaRG™ cells.
The developed in-vitro MN assay will be adapted to a medium- to high-throughput straightforward readable assay, thanks to the implementation of high content screening imaging protocols and the development of an image analysis and classification-based pipeline.
The assay will bring new capacities to the classic MN assay and may lead to breakthroughs in the prevention and/or the diagnosis of exposure to genotoxicants present in the environment, food or future drug candidates.

The consortium includes:

• Biopredic International
• INRA joint research unit « Food Toxicology » (Toxalim)
• Institut des technologies avancées en sciences du Vivant (ITAV) of the CNRS
• Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier university

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Development of a Bioartificial liver therapy in acute liver failure

The BALANCE project takes up the challenge of realising the clinical development of a Bioartificial Liver (BAL) based on the human liver cell line HepaRG™ that for the first time enables increased survival in patients with severe liver failure. BALANCE is a 3 year project organised in 3 stages:

• Stage I: In-vitro optimisation, validation and technical preparation of the HepaRG™ cell line in the bioreactor.
• Stage II:Proof of safety and feasibility in an appropriate model of liver failure
• Stage III: Proof of safety and feasibility in a phase I/IIa study in liver failure patients.

The consortium includes:

• Biopredic International
• AMC – Academic Medical Center – University of Amsterdam – the Netherlands
• Hep-Art Medical Devices – SME – the Netherlands
• PharmaCell B.V. – SME – the Netherlands
• UEDIN – Royal Infirmary University of Edinburgh – UK

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