A human cell assay that mimics airway interactions with respiratory epithelial cells.
As illustrated by the current COVID-19 pandemic, respiratory diseases are a major public health problem worldwide. Although respiratory diseases affect 35 million people in the U.S., there is a lack of adequate drugs to address this burden. Indeed, only one out of 10,000 candidate compounds will receive FDA approval, a process that can take 15 years at a cost of $2.5 billion. Current preclinical methods for testing drug candidates lack predictability, which may be due to an inability to model interactions with the respiratory epithelium.
Technology Description
Taking advantage of the concept that “the nose is the window into the lung,” Pitt researchers have developed NanoNares, a human cell assay that mimics airway interactions with respiratory epithelial cells. Primary nasal airway cells can be grown in a micro-fluidic chip device, which includes a porous PET membrane in a middle plastic layer and two sealable glass layers. The platform can be used to model airway diseases, allergies, and aerosol or vascular drug delivery. NanoNares nasal cells are grown with other cells of interest to allow for cell-on-cell interactions and collection of more robust human cell data to increase the success rate of new target drugs in clinical testing, dramatically reducing overall costs incurred by pharmaceutical companies.Advantages
Applicable to a wide variety of airway diseases
Easy access to simulated airway interactions
Customizable for numerous cell combinations
Lowers costs and speeds testing process
Can test drugs delivered by both aerosol and vascular means
Ensures only top-performing candidate drugs are submitted to the rigorous FDA-approval processApplications
Preclinical and clinical testing for new drugs to treat airway diseases, asthma, and allergiesStage of Development
Proof of concept; product developmentIP Status
Invention disclosure in progressNotable Mentions
This project was awarded $3,000 from the NSF ICorp First Gear program and $5,000 in the NSF ICorp Second Gear program. NanoNares won 4th place in the Randall Family Big Idea Competition, with a prize of $2,000 and participated in the Blast Furnace Incubator Program (Summer 2020) and the Forge Accelerator (Fall 2020).Relevant publications
Forno E, Wang T, Qi C, Yan Q, Xu CJ, Boutaoui N, Han YY, Weeks DE, Jiang Y, Rosser F, Vonk JM, Brouwer S, Acosta-Perez E, Colón-Semidey A, Alvarez M, Canino G, Koppelman GH, Chen W, Celedón JC. DNA methylation in nasal epithelium, atopy, and atopic asthma in children: a genome-wide study. Lancet Respir Med. 2019 Apr;7(4):336-346. doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(18)30466-1. Epub 2018 Dec 21. PMID: 30584054; PMCID: PMC6441380.Innovators
Nadia Boutaoui, PhD
Lab Director, Celedón Lab, Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Allergy, and Immunology
UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh
Dr. Boutaoui’s has dedicated her research focus to asthma genetics and epigenetics. She uses genetics and epigenetics tools to understand the effect of nutrition and environmental exposures on respiratory diseases such as asthma.Education
Postdoctoral, Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Postdoctoral, Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts
PhD, Genetics, University of Reading
MSc/Meng, Agronomy, Institut National d’AgronomieLawrence Vernetti, PhD
Research Associate Professor, Computational and Systems Biology, Drug Discovery Institute
Dr. Vernetti’s research is focused on development of in vitro animal and human organ models for pharmacokinetics, toxicology, and disease research.Education
Postdoctoral, Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Postdoctoral, Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts
PhD, Genetics, University of Reading
MSc/Meng, Agronomy, Institut National d’AgronomieJuan Celedón, MD, DrPH
Principal Investigator, Celèdon Lab, Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Allergy, and Immunology
Chief of Service, Division of Pediatric Pulmonology, Allergy, and Immunology
UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh
Dr. Celedón’s research interests include identifying genetic factors and early-life environmental exposures that influence the development of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, particularly in ethnic minorities, and understanding the roles of racial ancestry and genetics, stress, obesity, and vitamin D insufficiency in the pathogenesis of airway diseases.Education
DrPH, Harvard School of Public Health
Research Fellow, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Fellow, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brown University Alpert School of Medicine
Resident, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Medical Center
MD, Pontificia Universidad JaverianaSelect Publications
Boutaoui N, Celedón JC, et al. A novel whole blood gene expression signature for asthma, dermatitis, and rhinitis multimorbidity in children and adolescents. Allergy. 2020 Apr 11. doi: 10.1111/all.14314. [Epub ahead of print]
Boutaoui N, Celedón JC, et al. Transcriptome-wide and differential expression network analyses of childhood asthma in nasal epithelium. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2020 Feb 20. pii: S0091-6749(20)30197-4. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2020.02.005.