Bi/ond to Support Muscle Mitophagy Drug Development Programs as a Recipient of the Latest Eurostars Grant Award

muscle efficiency drug development program

Consortium to generate pre-clinical data for muscle disfunction drug candidate

Delft, The Netherlands – 13 February 2024 – Bi/ond, a cutting-edge Dutch startup focused on developing organ-on-chip platforms, is one of the proud recipients of the €1.1M Eurostars grant, awarded as part of the European Partnership on Innovative Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.

The Delft-based company is partnering with Vandria (Switzerland), as well as Biomeostasis and Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) (France) for this project. Bi/ond will empower the rest of the consortium with their organ-on-chip hardware technology platform that uniquely incorporates essential features required for the successful development of muscular dystrophy models.

The project is funded by the European Union through the Eurostars program with joint contributions from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), Bpifrance and Innosuisse, and will help advance the development of Vandria’s VNA-052, a best-in-class mitophagy inducer for the treatment of muscle diseases, toward the clinical phase.

Vandria’s muscle program mitophagy drug candidate, VNA-052, is expected to improve muscle function in patients with muscle pathologies of high unmet medical needs. 

The program enables the consortium partners to make use of Bi/ond’s technology platform for the development of biological protocols and assays. A robust skeletal muscle model will be developed and used to understand what drives the muscle penetration of the drug candidate, as well as to give the possibility to study healthy versus diseased models.

AP-HP joins the consortium under the leadership of world leading sIBM expert Prof. Olivier Benveniste. The research organization will test VNA-052’s effect on immune cells from sIBM patients, as well as potential efficacy and target engagement biomarkers.

Finally, the Consortium is completed by in vivo model experts Biomeostasis who will develop a series of first-in-kind rodent models (Duchenne muscular dystrophy, sarcopenia) and downstream analysis pipelines to obtain proof of concept efficacy data for VNA-052 in other muscle indications, expanding the value of the compound and serving as mitigation for the sIBM program.

As a result of the collaboration, the group expects to be able to generate preclinical data that demonstrates the efficacy of the drug.

“The Eurostars grant presents a tremendous opportunity for Bi/ond to contribute to the development of effective therapies for muscular dystrophy, benefiting the millions of people worldwide suffering from these diseases. We are enthusiastic about leveraging our biological and engineering expertise, collaborating with pioneering organizations like Vandria, Biomeostasis and Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP)” states Dr. Cinzia Silvestri, CEO and co-founder of Bi/ond.

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For further information contact:

Bi/ond

info@biondteam.com

Media Enquiries

Zuriñe Garcia

marketing@biondteam.com

About Bi/ond

Bi/ond specializes in empowering biological innovations through microfabrication techniques and integrated electronics components. We engineer microfluidic chips that create reproducible biological models, reducing the need for animal testing. Our unique platform includes electrophysiology functionality, enabling stimulation and monitoring of muscle contractions. This technology is crucial for patients with rare genetic diseases, as it facilitates the development of tailored treatments. By studying organs on our platform, researchers gain insights into disease mechanisms and test the effects of drugs on human-derived tissues.

Read more: https://www.gobiond.com  

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/biond

Cinzia Silvestri – Females to Follow Nominee

Females to follow

Our CEO, Cinzia Silvestri, is nominated to the TOPX Females to Follow Awards in the category Rising Stars in Entrepreneurship. 

The nominees are 30 amazing female professionals in the Health and Life Sciences sector.

The awards aim at empowering promising and ambitious women, and honouring inspirational females with remarkable careers, so they can be an inspiration to the next generation of women and follow in their footsteps.

The awards will give visibility and  celebrate the achievements of three winners in the categories – Rising Stars in Entrepreneurship, Industry and Science (for the full list of nominees, read here)

Voting is possible until the 4th of January 2024 trough this link, and winners will be announced at the  TOPX Summit on 18 January in Utrecht.

Vote females to follow

On Demand Webinar: Advancements in 3D modeling – Building mature, functional 3D skeletal muscle microtissues in vitro

Webinar recording now available - Skeletal muscle

If you missed the live session, or want to go back to some of the key aspects of the webinar, you can access now on demand!! 

Watch this webinar if you want to:

  • Discover how to culture 3D muscle cell bundles on Bi/ond’s MUSbit™ platform
  • Learn how to combine Bi/ond’s technology with ioSkeletal Myocites (and other skeletal muscle cells) for measuring muscle contractions triggered by electrical stimulation.
  • Explore the translational potential of the MUSbit™/Let-it-bit™ for pharmacological studies on wild-type and disease model cells. 
Access the Webinar

WEBINAR : Advancements in 3D modelling: Building mature, functional 3D skeletal muscle microtissues in vitro

Webinar advances in 3D modelling , 13 October 2023
Register now

Join us for an inspiring session where we present to you how we have  successfully cultured bit.bio’s human iPSC-derived ioSkeletal Myocytes™ on Bi/ond’s perfusable Organ-on-Chip platform, generating 3D skeletal muscle microtissues. 

In this webinar, you will learn how you can reliably generate functional 3D muscle bundles containing striated multinucleated myocytes in less than a week. 

Find out how to pace and train your muscle tissue simulating physiological conditions, achieve accelerated muscle maturation and enhanced contractile response. 

Discover how Bi/ond’s chip technology can unlock the possibilities of your research to study vascularization, dynamic drug response, and even mimic the immune system’s response. 

Key learning objectives

  • Discover how to culture 3D muscle cell bundles on Bi/ond’s MUSbit™ platform
  • Learn how to combine Bi/ond’s technology with ioSkeletal Myocytes for measuring muscle contractions triggered by electrical stimulation
  • Explore the translational potential of the MUSbit/Let-it-bit™ for pharmacological studies on wild-type and disease model cells
Register now

Bi/ond combines feeding, stimulating and monitoring of cells in one microchip

Lab researcher with microscope

We have been featured in the latest Labvision magazine issue !

For a few months, our biology team has been using a Nikon microscope to image some of our experiments. For the moment, we have used it mostly with fixed tissue slides on the basis of fluorescence to look at the suitable expression markers of different cell types, and confirm that the barrier functions properly. 

As next step, we will also do live cell experiments with it, for instance to follow up how cells move from one to another compartment; or if you have muscle tissue in a pillar in our MUSbit™, to observe how the flow of medicine affects the muscle contraction.

If you have a hard copy of the magazine, go to pages 56-59 to read more. 

If not, check the article here to discover multiple applications of our organ-on-chip technology that can help your own research. 

PRESENTATION : Stimulating 3D Skeletal Muscle Microtissues in a Novel Perfusable Microphysiological System with Integrated Electrodes

IIm meeting talk Skeletal Muscle culture

📣 SPEAKER ANNOUNCEMENT 📣

Stimulating Skeletal Muscle Microtissues in a novel perfusable mucrophysiological system integrated with electrodes. This is the title of the presentation that our CTO, Nikolas Gaio, will be giving in Italy soon. The meeting of the Interuniversity Institute of Miology, is taking place in Assisi Italy, 12-15 of October.

During the session, Nikolas will talk to the audience about how Bi/ond has managed to stimulate 3D Skeletal Muscle Microtissues in our perfusable microphysiological system, incorporating integrated electrodes.

He will present the results of our assay where we successfully culture bit.bio skeletal muscle cells on our MUSbit™ platform, obtaining as a result 3D muscle bundles, and experiencing robust muscle contraction.

Do not miss this opportunity to see this ground breaking results in first person!

To get you in the mood for it, you can always visit our website to discover this and other applications for your research : www.gobiond.com/applications/

To attend: https://iim2023.azuleon.org/ 



In Zurich for Next Gen Organoids and organ-on-chip workshop by CSEM

3rd Next Gen Organoids and Organ-on-Chip workshop

We are thrilled to announce that we will be in Zurich on 24 and 25th of August joining the 3rd Next Gen Organoid and Organ-on-Chip workshop, organized by CSEM(*). 

If you are in the pharma & biotech industry, or you are a clinician, regulatory expert or work in a research organization, you may consider joining as well. There will be multiple keynote sessions where some relevant topics will be discussed, amongst others:

  • How to accelerate the translation of advanced in-vitro models into clinical and drug development applications 
  • How to develop innovative products or services based on groundbreaking technologies 
  • How to overcome barriers associated with the adoption of new methods and technologies in a regulated environment 

We hope to see you there!

📅 When: 24 – 25 August 2023, 

📍 Where: Technopark Zürich, Technoparkstrasse 1, 8005 Zurich

▶️ Registration: here

🗣 Language: English

Nikolas and Curt will have some time to meet up front of the workshop on 22nd or 23rd of August if you are interested in learning about the possibilities that our technology can bring to your research

(*)About CSEM: The “Centre Suisse d’électronique et de Microtechnique” (Swiss center of electronics and micro technique) is a public-private, non-profit Swiss technology innovation center that enables competitiveness through innovation by developing and transferring world-class technologies for the industrial sector.

Bi/ond at ACE-SCORE annual meeting

ACE-Score

Bi/ond will be attending the annual meeting of the Erasmus University Academic Center of Excellence for Stem Cells & Organoids in Personalized and Regenerative Medicine (ACE-SCORE). The event will take place of the 31st of August at the Centrale Bibliotheek in Rotterdam. 

What is ACE-SCORE?

Erasmus MC started in 2015 a series of Academic Centers of Excellence to strengthen collaboration between care, research and education, discover new opportunities and inspire each other. ACE SCORE aims to promote interactions and collaborations between fundamental and translational research efforts in multiple disciplines relating to stem cells and organoids, to accelerate innovation and bring regenerative and personalized medicine approaches closer to the patient.

The group’ aim is very close to Bi/ond’s company vision to develop lab technology that will allow for more accurate drug testing and simulations of any tissue type.

We welcome this opportunity to further our relationship with Erasmus Medical Centrum, and learn from their research groups about their struggles, latest discoveries and future plans.

Will we see you on the 31st of August in Rotterdam?

Travel with us to Torino for EACR 2023

EACR 2023 Torino

We are in full preparation mode for EACR 2023, the annual Congress of the European Association for Cancer research.

Our colleagues Liesbeth and Curtis will travel to Turin from 12 to 15th of June to be present at this important event, which highlights the latest research in the oncology field, and brings together the cancer research community.

At our booth, you will be able to find out more about our products, inCHIPit ™ and comPLATE™, as well as their applications for cancer research, and we will be informing also about actual results from some of our partners.

We hope to learn from you about your challenges, and contribute to inspiring you discover a new way of conducting your research through the use of organ-on-chips.

Meet us at booth #58 so we can start building connections and collaborations for a better future for cancer patients!

 

More events like this?