CN Bio wins £180K Innovate UK grant to cut animal use in drug testing
What's the deal? CN Bio, a Cambridge-based provider of organ-on-a-chip systems, has been awarded £180,000 ($232,000) in grant funding from Innovate UKDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. Delivered with the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research, the grant supports human-relevant alternatives to animal-based pharmacokinetic studies.
What's the endgame? CN Bio will build a workflow combining data from its human multi-organ microphysiological systems with physiologically based pharmacokinetic models. The goal is to generate mechanistic pharmacokinetic insights and translate them into clinical predictions within a single workflow, without relying on animals.
Why now? The project aligns with the UK government's November 2025 roadmap to reduce dog and non-human primate use in pharmacokinetic studies by 35% by 2030. Such animal studies are costly, low throughput and often translate poorly to human outcomes.
The project builds on CN Bio's dual-organ PhysioMimix Gut/Liver systems. A feasibility study will explore adding a kidney model to estimate renal clearance, while liquid-handling automation will be tested to improve throughput and reproducibility. CN Bio will also partner with contract research organisations to define adoption requirements.
What they're saying? "Understanding pharmacokinetics is crucial to determining a drug candidate's efficacy and potential side effects," said Yassen Abbas, biology group leader at CN Bio. He called the project "a valuable new route to unlock earlier, human-relevant insights into drug disposition."
The signal: The £180,000 award sits in the smaller tier of disclosed funding events, but grant backing signals policy momentum behind non-animal testing methods. As governments push to phase out animal research, microphysiological systems are positioning as the practical, human-relevant alternative pharma will need.
Read more: Associated Press
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
