InvivoSciences a startup biotechnology firm with laboratories in Milwaukee, is working to help drug developers bridge the gap between molecular and animal testing methods. For researchers studying heart diseases, skin disorders, and other maladies, Invivo's manufactured live tissue system could provide that bridge.

Using tissues derived from neonatal rats, the company has created a screening system that allows researchers to test drug candidates on live tissue en masse.

A single rat, culled from colony surpluses, can provide five to 10 live tissue samples. With two weeks of preparation, Invivo scientists can mature heart tissue, for example, so that it will continue contracting like a beating heart for a month or longer.

The result is a high throughput screening method that allows drug developers to screen between 2,000 and 3,000 samples per day.

Tetsuro Wakatsuki, chief scientist and co-founder of Invivo and assistant professor of physiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, explained that the technology is advantageous because it eliminates cell-to-cell variability. It also minimizes unrelated and invalid leads and protein targets at very early stages of the biotech drug-discovery process.

The information gleaned from the testing method also allows researchers to study biological responses in a three-dimensional environment instead of gathering data from chemical reactions.

The heart tissue or blood vessel samples can be cultivated to suit large drug-screening projects on 96-well plates, and they can be assembled to provide models for specific disease conditions with either healthy, sick, or genetically modified tissue.

The technology has the ability to help scientists address a variety of diseases, including cardiac fibrosis, hypertension, and asthma with applications in scar contracture, wound healing, and aging skin therapies.

"The ultimate goal is to discover new drugs," Tetsuro said.