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A joint £15.9 million investment by the UKRI Medical Research Council (MRC), Wellcome and UKRI Innovate UK will enable the development of advanced, specific and highly reproducible human in vitro models with the aim of making them widely available to researchers in academia and industry.
In vitro models use isolated cells and tissues outside the living body and can come in many forms, including stem-cell derived cell and tissue aggregates that display some organ features on a smaller scale (organoids), tissue slices removed during surgery (ex vivo/explant tissue cultures), and organ-on-chips, which combine cell culture with microfluidics to mimic the structure and function of different organ tissues.
In vitro models will also provide new alternatives, helping to reduce the reliance on animal models in research and drug development, and support the Government's 'Replacing animals in science - a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods.'
A co-ordinated network of five interdisciplinary teams will focus on the development of in vitro disease models of liver, brain, cancer, pain, and blood vessels.
Tonia joins the pain cluster, led by Professor Zameel Cader, Director of the Oxford Headache Centre at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences (NDCD).
Advanced human in vitro models of pain
Chronic pain affects millions worldwide and remains one of the leading causes of disability. Effective treatments are limited because current models fail to fully capture pain biology.
The cluster led by Professor Cader will develop innovative human models that better replicate the complexity of the pain system and induce pain-like states in the models, with a focus on neuropathic and osteoarthritis pain.
Using cutting-edge stem cell and organoid technologies, the team will create advanced human in vitro models that incorporate sensory neurons, immune, and vascular components to mimic the complex interactions driving pain. By combining these biological systems with molecular profiling and AI-based analysis, the research aims to reveal how pain arises and persists in human tissue.
Combining the expertise of researchers at the University of Oxford's Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, The Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, and Department of Engineering Science, as well as with Medicines Discovery Catapult and MaxWell BioSystems, the models will serve as a powerful new platform for testing candidate therapeutics and reducing reliance on animal models in pain research.
Professor Cader says: 'Our goal is to bring human biology to the core of pain research. By recreating the cellular environments where pain originates, we can uncover new mechanisms and improve drug discovery. An important aspect of this new programme is to bring our learning and tools to the pain research community, which ultimately, we hope will lead to treatments that will work.'
Tonia Vincent, Associate Director of the Kennedy Institute, added: 'We are excited to be part of this project in which we will model nerve and blood vessel remodelling that occurs in the context of osteoarthritis and which contributes to the development of pain. This project will allow us to identify and validate new approaches to targeting pain in this hard to treat patient group.'
A co-ordinated network
A key ambition of the new investment is strategic coordination across the network of supported projects and to create connectivity with wider UK capabilities, including industry to join efforts and address common challenges in the field.
Other projects in the network include:
• MIMIC: An interconnected multiorgan platform to recreate the complex pathophysiology of the Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) led by Professor Amir Ghaemmaghami, based at the University of Nottingham
• Edinburgh Human Brain Cluster: Enhancing Investigation of Live Human Brain Slice Models with Deep Patient Phenotyping led by Professor Paul Brennan at the University of Edinburgh
• INTREPID: IN vitro TumouR Explant models for evaluating cancer complexity and Patient Diversity led by Professor Catrin Pritchard at the University of Leicester
• ARTEMIS: ARTificial blood vessels for Thrombosis, Endothelial Modelling, and artificial Intelligence Simulation led by Dr Simon Calaminus at the University of Hull
Professor Patrick Chinnery, MRC Executive Chair, said: 'Human in vitro models enable the investigation of disease mechanisms whilst minimising the use of animals.
'This will accelerate our ability to diagnose illnesses early, develop new treatments, and prevent disease.'
Dr Michael Dunn, Director of Discovery Research at Wellcome, said: 'These novel human in vitro models will help accelerate discovery research by enabling better understanding of fundamental human physiology and disease.'
The funding was delivered in partnership with the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs).