2ndB

Neurogenerative diseases (NDDs) account for a significant burden of disease globally, and their weight is expected to increase due to the rapid aging of the population. Currently, there are no curative treatments for NDDs, as most available solutions aim only at delaying disease progress. Unfortunately, drug development for NDDs has a low success rate (14.5%) due to the lack of accurate preclinical models that can predict human response. This is particularly noticeable in phase II studies, where clinical efficacy in humans is often missing. 2ndB aims at bridging this gap by creating a new preclinical in-vitro test (a brain-on-chip), capable of accurately predicting clinical efficacy, increasing the rate of success in drug development, reducing overall cost and accelerating the development of curative solutions for NDDs. Our technology is based on a proprietary and innovative microsieve in which neurons can mature in their natural 3D morphology and form networks. The connected networks of neurons in our microsieves can be measured in an easy manner to provide an accurate analysis of potential drug efficacy and facilitate precise, fast and cost-effective compound selection for clinical studies. We have already demonstrated our technology with basic neuronal cultures and plan on expanding into induced pluripotent stem cell derived neuronal cell cultures with Parkinson’s Disease as our first target in the coming two years.