New way to learn drug side effects?

Tina Reed By Tina Reed Ann Arbor News
on August 07, 2008 at 12:09 PM, updated August 07, 2008 at 12:14 PM

elve into the impact a drug has on an animal or a human, they typically examine a cell sample on a thin piece of glass beneath a microscope.

University of Michigan chemical engineering professor Nicholas Kotov says he has found a better way to study side effects and he's selling it to pharmaceutical companies.

Kotov said he has developed a way to structure cells in a three-dimensional "scaffold" within a test tube that more closely resembles the configuration cells take on within the human body. He and two doctoral candidates, Meghan Cuddihy and Jung Woo Lee, are marketing that product through their company, 3D Biomatrix.

"You may have heard quite recently about failures in the drug discovery market, even after they've been approved by the FDA," Kotov said. ... My company is about creating and improving a new application for drug discovery."


The company, now a year old, was crowned this summer's winner of the Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest new business idea competition.

The News recently spoke with Kotov about his company and the local pharmaceutical industry.

Q: What does 3D Biomatrix do?

A: "We'd like to replace some human and animal trials, which are very expensive, take lots of time and are highly regulated. ... Instead of running experiments and trying to figure out how a drug will affect the lungs, for example, we can do the test ex vivo."

University of Michigan chemical engineering professor Nicholas Kotov's company, 3D Biomatrix, was this summer's winner of the Great Lake Entrepreneur's Quest new business idea competition.
Q: Ex vivo? What does that mean?

A: "En vivo means it's implanted or added to the actual animal or human. Ex vivo needs no live species involved."

Q: Why create this so-called "human-in-a-test tube" environment?

A: "The problem with the current technique (in ex vivo testing) is that the cells always adhere to its substrate - whether that be a glass slide or a petri dish. It's very convenient to test this way. But the truth is, when they adhere to the glass like that, they don't behave in the same way they do in the body."

Q: With your perspective on the pharmaceutical industry, what are your thoughts on the local industry?

A: "I think we all are trying to revitalize the local economy. ... We have lots of potential here intellectually. Unfortunately, a lot of drug discovery that would help create a vibrant community here in Michigan is impeded by the fact that investment here in the state is not as strong as it is in California and Massachusetts and, now, even Texas."

Q: What is the answer to that?

A: "We need to consider the tax system in Michigan is not conducive to creating business in the state because of the Michigan Business Tax. This hurts investment from high tech business. We certainly will start adding manufacturing jobs in the Ann Arbor area, more specifically in Ypsilanti. But after that, it depends on the viability of it."