Merck, a leading science and technology company, and imec

默克，一家领先的科技公司，和imec

, a world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, announced a strategic partnership to develop an advanced microphysiological systems (MPS) platform. Their collaboration aims to drive both partners’ efforts to make drug discovery and development more efficient by increasing the predictive validity of next-generation preclinical models and progressively reducing the reliance on animal testing..

，一个在纳米电子和数字技术领域世界领先的研究和创新中心，宣布了一项战略合作伙伴关系，以开发一个先进的微生理系统 (MPS) 平台。他们的合作旨在推动双方的努力，通过提高下一代临床前模型的预测有效性，并逐步减少对动物试验的依赖，从而使药物发现和开发更加高效。

“By integrating industry leading induced pluripotent stem cells and patient derived organoids portfolio offered by Merck with the disruptive joint hardware platform that features an unprecedented number of biosensors, we’re creating a connected in-vitro and in-silico pipeline capable of generating the high-quality biological training data that is critically needed.

“通过将默克公司提供的行业领先的诱导多能干细胞和患者来源的类器官产品组合，与具有前所未有的生物传感器数量的突破性联合硬件平台相结合，我们正在创建一个连接体外和计算机内的管道，能够生成目前急需的高质量生物学训练数据。"

When coupled with AI-driven drug discovery, this closed-loop operating model will greatly improve data translatability to humans, speed discovery of new drug candidates, and enable researchers to more closely simulate the human body than ever before,” said Steven Johnston, Vice President and Head of Technology Enablement at Merck with regards to the transformative potential of this collaboration..

“当与人工智能驱动的药物发现相结合时，这种闭环操作模型将大大提高数据对人类的可转化性，加速新药候选物的发现，并使研究人员能够比以往更紧密地模拟人体，”默克公司技术赋能副总裁兼负责人史蒂文·约翰斯顿在谈到此次合作的变革潜力时说道。

“Adequate preclinical models require biological relevance and the ability to generate rich and diverse data sets at high throughput—something that no current model can provide. At imec, we are building a unique chip technology to fill this data gap. Combined with Merck’s expertise across the Life Science and Healthcare sectors, we will be able to address the growing need for preclinical models to guide AI models for drug discovery,” added Paru Deshpande, Vice President R&D at imec..

“充足的临床前模型需要生物学相关性，并能够以高通量生成丰富多样的数据集——这是当前任何模型都无法提供的。在imec，我们正在构建一种独特的芯片技术来填补这一数据缺口。结合默克在生命科学和医疗保健领域的专业知识，我们将能够满足对临床前模型日益增长的需求，以指导用于药物发现的AI模型。” imec研发副总裁Paru Deshpande补充道。

This first-of-its kind co-development program aims to integrate cutting-edge organoid biology models with advanced semiconductor hardware incorporating biosensing and microfluidic capabilities, all validated for ease-of-use in Merck’s Healthcare business sector laboratory setting and globally offered by the Life Science business sector of Merck.

这种首创的共同开发项目旨在将尖端的类器官生物学模型与先进的半导体硬件相结合，该硬件包含生物传感和微流控功能，并在默克医疗保健业务部门的实验室环境中验证了易用性，同时由默克的生命科学业务部门在全球范围内提供。

This approach is to enable scientists to gain time-relevant insights from individual organ health to a multi-organ connected system, paving the way for more accurate and efficient drug development processes..

这种方法旨在使科学家能够从单个器官健康到多器官连接系统中获得与时间相关的见解，为更准确和高效的药物开发过程铺平道路。

A key element of this disruptive hardware development partnership is the jointly developed highly adaptable modular system, facilitating seamless expansion from single to multi-organ configurations. The system’s standardized interfaces will enable custom configurations from the broad Merck portfolio of induced pluripotent stem cells and patient derived organoids models.

这种颠覆性硬件开发合作关系的一个关键元素是 jointly developed highly adaptable modular system，该系统能够无缝地从单器官配置扩展到多器官配置。系统标准化的接口将实现从广泛的默克诱导多能干细胞和患者衍生类器官模型组合中进行定制配置。

Combined with imec’s unique expertise in sensor technologies, state-of-the-art integrated biosensors will enable customers to obtain better-quality data through in situ, label-free measurements as well as cell culture control and reproducibility. This is expected to result in more reliable predictions and real-time identification of human organ responses to drug and chemical stimuli with application in pre-clinical safety and toxicity studies as well as in drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics..

结合imec在传感器技术方面的独特专业知识，最先进的集成生物传感器将使客户能够通过原位、无标记测量以及细胞培养控制和可重复性获得更高质量的数据。预计这将带来更可靠的预测和实时识别人体器官对药物和化学刺激的反应，并应用于临床前安全性和毒性研究以及药物代谢和药代动力学领域。

Additionally, the standardized set of building blocks underpinning this technology enables ease of use and data consistency across different experimental setups. This standardization is expected to facilitate more comparable and reproducible results across the pharmaceutical industry, to further speed the drug development timeline and reducing costs..

此外，支撑这项技术的标准化构建模块集使得在不同的实验设置中易于使用并保持数据一致性。这一标准化有望促进制药行业获得更具可比性和可重复性的结果，从而进一步加快药物开发时间线并降低成本。

Both Merck and imec invite other biopharma players to join this ongoing collaboration to develop the next generation of MPS models with the potential to bring safer, more effective treatments to patients faster than ever before.

默克公司和imec邀请其他生物制药企业加入这一正在进行的合作，共同开发下一代MPS模型，有望比以往更快地为患者带来更安全、更有效的治疗。