Bionas make available its online cell monitoring system
metabolic activity of cells to understand cellular function that
could prove highly useful in drug discovery and development.
The Bionas 2500 is a bench-top instrument that has been developed to measure multiple metabolic parameters simultaneously like acidification, oxygen consumption and adhesion of living cells for high quality and predictive safety pharmacology studies during preclinical phases of drug discovery.
Successful introduction of a new drug to the market is fraught with a significant risk of failure. Over the period of 1990-2000 the cost of pharmaceutical research and development has risen by almost 2.5-fold.
This fact does not mention chances of success for a drug candidate passing through the various hurdles in pharmaceutical development, which at best is 1 in 10.
This has barely changed despite advancing technology in other areas of research and development. Crucial to a drug's success is its performance in the safety pharmacology studies (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicology).
The Bionas 2500 uses a label-free and non-invasive live cell-based assay, which uses sensor chips that replace the conventional bottom of culture wells.
The readout is carried out continuously over long periods of time and can be watched online revealing a deeper insight in cellular function than possible with endpoint-based assays. Regeneration effects can also be monitored.
The Bionas 2500 system has been designed to closely mimic the in vivo situation aiding compound selection during preclinical phases of drug discovery, reduce needless animal studies and saves money due to reduction of development time
Main applications include drug profiling, lead optimisation, early toxicology programs, ADME/Tox, chemosensitivity testing, toxicological testing of chemical substances (REACH) and cell culture monitoring/optimisation.
