Guest Editors
Chloe Ann Whitehouse
Merck Sharpe & Dohme UK Ltd
Chloe completed her BSc in Neuroscience and Pharmacology at the University of Nottingham, UK, graduating with a first-class honors degree in 2017. Chloe continued at the University of Nottingham for her doctoral studies, transferring to the Department of medical and health sciences. In her PhD research, Chloe developed a novel blood-brain barrier “on-a-chip” model using primary porcine cells for pharmacokinetic testing. Following the completion of her PhD in 2021, Chloe started her position as a postdoctoral fellow at MSD. Within her postdoctoral position, Chloe has developed several novel 3D central nervous system co-culture models focusing on throughput and homogeneity requirements for implementation in drug discovery.
Nicola Corbett
Merck Sharpe & Dohme UK Ltd
Dr. Nicola J. Corbett joined Merck Sharpe & Dohme (MSD) in 2018 where she is currently an Associate Principal Scientist within the London Discovery – Neuroscience team. Prior to joining MSD, Nicola completed her PhD in synaptic pathology at the Open University in 2009 and then held postdoctoral positions at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, USA working on conductance scaling of CA1 pyramidal cells in the hippocampus of aged rats and at the University of Manchester investigating the effects of sAPP and Klotho in synaptic structure and function in iPSC-derived cells. During her post-doc in Manchester, Nicola realized the potential of 3D models when helping to assess neurons in hydrogels. Nicola’s interests in this area have continued at MSD where she leads the iPSC models efforts for the London Discovery site
Yufang He
Merck Sharpe & Dohme UK Ltd
Dr. Yufang He is the lead for 3D biofabrication product line at Merck Global 3D Technologies lab, She is the technical lead for 3D biofabrication and applications for drug discovery and development. She is responsible for the evaluation of technical strategies and execution of new technology integration to develop next-generation 3D platforms and screening tools. Yufang works closely with internal business partners, as well as technology, academia, and government partners to develop Merck’s biofabrication capabilities. Having served as the subject matter expert on numerous 3D translational modeling initiatives, she brings a keen understanding of worldwide technical, scientific, and regulatory issues that face the business
Collection Overview
The absence of in vitro models that adequately capture complex pathological phenotypes across tissues has resulted in a translational gap between in vitro findings and in vivo outcomes.
This gap has created a bottleneck in developing new therapeutics for many burdensome diseases. In the last ten years, numerous advanced and intricate 3D models have been released, and the introduction of the FDA modernization act 2.0 signifies that animal experimentation is no longer obligatory for human trials. These developments have paved the way for complex 3D models to revolutionize current industry standards in drug discovery.
However, many of the novel 3D models that are published overlook throughput and homogeneity requirements for implementing these models into drug discovery processes. Therefore, this represents a knowledge gap that could hinder the translation of these models across drug discovery efforts. The aim of this Methods Collection is to develop a foundation of knowledge that can be used to create models for drug discovery purposes. This collection will inform upon techniques suitable for developing drug discovery models in a field with a broad and complex variety of practices.
