With the help of experts from Riga Technical University (RTU), participating in the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia’s «PROTOTECH» programme, a new «organ-on-a-chip» technology has been validated.
«Cellboxlab» is developing a unique «organ-on-a-chip» technology that will help develop drugs faster and more efficiently. An «organ-on-a-chip» is a plastic chip with micro-channels, one of which mimics a blood vessel and the other an organ channel, such as the intestine or lung. These channels can provide conditions very similar to those in the body, allowing more precise information on the effects of drugs. This allows early identification of toxic and ineffective drugs before they enter the very expensive phase of clinical trials.
To enable biologists to use this technology, the company has developed a cell culture tool that provides nutrient flow to grow cells and a monitoring system. The instrument consists of several components: a liquid pumping system, a tube connection module, a microscope and sensors. As part of «PROTOTECH», Roberts Rimša, a member of the company's board of directors, wanted to develop the instrument and validate the chip technology with the help of RTU in order to move his product closer to the market. The work was carried out by Oskars Šēlis, an electrical engineer at the Innovative Product Development Department of the RTU Science and Innovation Centre.
«The project has developed a programme that controls the equipment given by the customer. The equipment consists of a table on which a specific chip is placed, into which organ cells are inserted, and a camera module. The aim of the software is to take pictures of the cells so that the biologist can analyse them," says the electrical engineer. The biologist has to analyse specific cell changes over a long period of time; several hundred images are taken. «When the images are taken again a week later, the software makes it easier for the biologist to compare them - it is a monitoring system that helps the researcher to analyse the data," explains O.Šēlis. The work went smoothly because the necessary values were already known, it was simply a case of putting the programme together.
«PROTOTECH» is a prototyping programme created by the Technology Business Centre of the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia, which provides support to natural and legal persons in the design and development of prototypes of science-intensive technology products or services in cooperation with leading Latvian universities - RTU, the University of Latvia and Riga Stradins University. The project is implemented under the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 Programme «Entrepreneurship Development, Innovation and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises». A grant of EUR 15 000 has been received for the development of this prototype. The project has been funded with a grant of EUR 15 million.
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