CareDx, Miromatrix partner to study use of bioengineered organs for human transplantation
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Key takeaways:
- CareDx intends to develop a testing solution to use in pre-clinical animal models.
- CareDx will provide donor-derived cell-free DNA testing for human clinical studies.
CareDx Inc. has partnered with Miromatrix Medical Inc. to address the organ supply shortage and improve transplantation outcomes by researching the use of bioengineered organs in humans, according to the press release.
“Increasing the life of the graft and increasing the quality of life of transplant recipients is CareDx’s goal, and one of the ways that we saw several years ago to do that was through partial investment in Miromatrix,” Robert Woodward, PhD, senior vice president of research and development for CareDx, told Healio. “Subsequently, that led to this collaboration where we saw opportunities to work together to help them optimize the development of their bioengineered organs.”
Through the partnership, CareDx will develop a unique testing solution to be used in the pre-clinical animal models conducted by Miromatrix. Additionally, CareDx will provide donor-derived cell-free DNA testing services to noninvasively measure acute allograft rejection in the human clinical studies with bioengineered organs.
“Ultimately, the goal is to provide Allosure donor-derived cell-free DNA for these bioengineered organs when they're used in the clinic,” Woodward said. “The pathway to that is to build something that can be used during Miromatrix’s development of these organs, when they are testing them. In this case, there's going to be animal models involved. So, we will build unique versions of our donor-derived cell-free DNA testing for their use in these models.”
According to Woodward, Miromatrix plans to bioengineer organs from the cells of organs that would be discarded. The selected cells would then be put into a scaffold taken from a pig heart, for example, Woodward said, populating it with the human cells.
“Miromatrix can create more than one new scaffold and bioengineered organ from each of the potential donated organs that weren't used for transplant,” Woodward said. “So, not only does it have the potential to increase organ supply because it makes use of an organ that wasn't good enough for transplant, but it also multiplies the number of them available.”
He said that the solution that will be designed by CareDx will provide “more frequent surveillance that catches rejection sooner” and “increase the quality of life” from that organ while decreasing the chances of a need for another transplantation.
In addition to improving the quality of organ transplants through early identification of graft failure, Woodward said Miromatrix may have plans to develop a catalogue, of sorts, with bioengineered organs in the future.
“They can have on-the-shelf cells that they can populate into a scaffold that would match any particular individual instead of trying to find a match from deceased organs that are available today,” Woodward told Healio. “That can really improve the quality of transplants.”
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