Business
Organovo Announces Target Validation Ahead of Schedule, Accelerating Timeline for First Crohn’s Disease Drug Candidates
SAN DIEGO, Nov. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Organovo Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: ONVO), a three-dimensional biology (3D biology) company focused on delivering
About this update from Vivosim Labs, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"SAN DIEGO, Nov. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Organovo Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: ONVO), a three-dimensional biology (3D biology) company focused on delivering scientific and medical breakthroughs using novel technologies including 3D bioprinting, today announced that it has successfully advanced the use of its first inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) model and has achieved the next milestone, target validation. The company announced in May 2022 that it had achieved a successful Crohn’s disease model that demonstrates key aspects of patient biology that differ from a non-diseased state and that the model would be used to find and characterize therapeutics. The Crohn’s disease model has since been utilized to understand the biology of disease and identify specific gene targets. Treating some of those targets, by introducing a compound directly to the 3D tissue model that affects the target, has now been shown to reproducibly reduce disease. Multiple targets are now considered validated, and they represent specific druggable opportunities that the company plans to leverage. Organovo plans to advance at least one target program to medicinal chemistry by the end of 2022 to build a proprietary new drug for Crohn’s disease. “The Organovo team has successfully identified disease regulated genes from our Crohn's disease model and importantly, identified a subset that are disease-driver genes,” said Jeff Miner, Ph.D., Organovo’s Chief Scientific Officer. “These disease-drivers directly affect the disease when modulated and represent superb therapeutic targets” he added. Organovo Executive Chairman Keith Murphy commented, “Organovo’s progress towards our goal has been driven by a strong, dedicated scientific team that has continued to rapidly advance our programs. We are pleased to have this step completed earlier than expected, and plan to continue to meet or exceed stockholder expectations as we move therapeutics to the clinic to meet unmet medical needs.” In September 2020, Organovo announced that it had updated its business model to capitalize on its human 3D tissue technologies in drug discovery, building disease models to find effective therapies that are more likely to succeed in the clinic than drugs discovered using animal models. We have focused on the creation of three-dimensional intestinal disease models to discover therapeutic opp...