Phase 2 Funding of £1 Million Awarded by CRACK IT Challenges to Develop TDAR-on-a-Chip

Leiden, February 22, 2022 – The CRACK IT Challenges is a competition from the NC3Rs, aimed at funding collaborations between industry, academics, small and medium-sized enterprises. The goal of these projects is to develop innovative solutions into marketable products or services that will deliver 3Rs benefits: the replacement, refinement and reduction of animals in research.

Last February, our team of scientists, which includes Dr. Karla Queiroz and Dr. Michelle Brouwer, was awarded Phase 1 funding of £100,000 for the development of a human in vitro T-cell dependent antibody response (TDAR) assay. We are proud to announce that this year, the team have been awarded funding of £1 million to deliver Phase 2 of the 2020 CRACK IT Challenges. Other consortium-members include:

Professor Jolanda de Vries, Tumor Immunology Radboud
Sofie Pattijn, ImmunXperts
Jan de Sonneville, Life Science Methods

Why TDAR-on-a-chip?

Their work is sponsored by Bayer AG, GSK, Merck Healthcare KGaA and Novartis Pharma AG, with the the aim of developing a human in vitro TDAR assay to assess the immune enhancement properties of immunomodulatory therapeutics during drug development. A robust in vitro human immune response assay could better predict clinical outcomes and reduce the number of animals used to assess immunotoxicity. 

Having previously carried out proof-of-concept studies during Phase 1, the team will now aim to develop tools to deliver a high-throughput human in vitro t-cell dependent antibody response assay for Phase 2.

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