Altis Biosystems created what is bills as a more accurate way to test drugs, which it is now selling. | Stock Photo
Altis Biosystems created what is bills as a more accurate way to test drugs, which it is now selling. | Stock Photo
A company once part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said that it created a method that produces more accurate drug testing.
Altis Biosystems' testing platform is being used for irritable bowel disease and cancer detection, a report in WRAL TechWire said on July 31. The RepliGut test is being sold to pharma companies. The Chapel Hill-based company originally was started by the UNC-CH Biomedical Engineering Department in 2015 before becoming independent. The goal was to develop a method to more accurately test.
According to the Altis website, "RepliGut is a unique, human stem cell-derived platform that recreates the intestinal epithelium in a continuous layer of stem and differentiated cells."
The company said the main problem with testing, which can have an 88% failure rate, was the CaCo-2 cancer cells that are used, TechWire reported. These mutated cells, and animal testing, the company said do not provide accurate human results during the testing phase.
"That allows us to do much more physiologically relevant assays," Altis Biosystems CEO Michael Biron told WRAL TechWire.
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