Cellular Dynamics International and VivoMedica Launch the CARDIOTOX Consortium to Validate a Human Cardiac Model for Preclinical Cardiotoxici...( MADISON Wis. and SI...),Health

MADISON, Wis. and SITTINGBOURNE, Kent, England, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Cellular Dynamics International (CDI) and VivoMedica plc announce the launch of CARDIOTOX - a pharmaceutical industry consortium to validate a human cell model and analysis system for preclinical cardiotoxicity testing of pharmaceutical candidate compounds. The consortium will be formally launched at the Safety Pharmacology Society 9th Annual Meeting in Strasbourg, France, on Sept. 15-18, 2009, during a workshop sponsored by CDI and VivoMedica at 12:30p.m. CET on Sept. 17.

Pharmaceutical companies are invited to participate in the consortium, which aims to provide the industry with a human cardiomyocyte-based solution to predict pro-arrhythmic effects of new chemical entities (NCEs). Human cardiomyocytes, or heart cells, express the relevant cardiac proteins and are thought to be more predictive of a drug compound's effect than animal cell-based technologies. The consortium will validate the testing system using CDI's revolutionary iCell(TM) Cardiomyocytes and VivoMedica's DrugPrint(R) analysis system. Extracellular micro-electrode array (MEA) recordings from CDI's fully functional induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived human cardiomyocytes will be analyzed using VivoMedica's proprietary electrical waveform analysis technology. This approach will identify drug-induced changes that indicate the arrhythmogenic potential of NCEs under investigation. These technologies, combined into an integrated test, will provide the industry with a validated pro-arrhythmia reference database for comprehensive early assessment of NCE's
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