Dr. D. Lansing Taylor spoke at the MPS World Summit on Friday, June 3rd, 2022 in New Orleans:  “A Complete Platform for Preclinical Trials of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Including a Patient Specific, Human, Biomimetic Liver Microphysiology System and a Portal to the BioSystics, Inc Analytical Platform” 

Additional presentations given by UPDDI members to the MPS World Summit: 

Xia, M, “A Patient-derived iPSC Liver Acinus Microphysiology System is an Innovative Precision Medicine Platform for Optimizing Clinical Trial Design of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)”.

Maggiore, J, “The BioSystics Analytics Platform: Today a Comprehensive Analytical Platform Creating Actionable Knowledge from in vitro Models, Clinical and Preclinical Data and Soon a Platform to Create Patient Digital Twins”.  

Aleman, J, ”A Microphysiological System Coupling of Metabolic Associated Fatty Liver Disease (MAFLD) to Endocrine Pancreatic Islets”

Dr. D. Lansing Taylor, the Director of the University of Pittsburgh Drug Discovery Institute, and Dr. Lawrence Vernetti, Director of Early Drug safety have been awarded an SBIR in conjunction with Simulations Plus for the development of BIOLOGXsym™ Macromolecule Safety Software.

The UPDDI has recently relocated to a new 7400 sq. ft. space on the 4th floor of the Pittsburgh Technology Center (PTC) building located at 700 Technology Drive within the Pittsburgh Technology Center development.

Gough A, Soto-Gutierrez A, Vernetti L, Ebrahimkhani MR, Stern AM, Taylor DL. Human biomimetic liver microphysiology systems in drug development and precision medicine. Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology. 2020. doi: 10.1038/s41575-020-00386-

Drs. Mark Schurdak and Bert Gough, principal investigators leading the development of the Microphysiology Systems Database (MPS-Db), are hosting a series of webinars introducing the MPS-Db, its features and benefits, as well as diving into the details on using the MPS-Db to manage, analyze, share and computationaly model MPS data.

Click to read more and register

Dr. D. Lansing Taylor (Drug Discovery Institute and Dept of Computational and Systems Biology), along with Dr. Vijay Yechoor (Department of Medicine and Director, Diabetes and Beta Cell Biology Center) have received a one year funded initiative to study the effects of COVID-19 on the Diabetic Liver. This initiative is a funded supplement to the grant: “Human Microphysiology Systems Disease Model of Type 2 Diabetes Starting with Liver and pancreatic Islets”

Drs. Jaideep Behari and Vijay Yerchoor made presentations at the 17th NIH Tissue chip consortium meeting to introduce the  projects: “A Vascularized Patient-derived iPSC Liver Acinus Microphysiology System as an Innovative Precision Medicine Platform for Optimizing Clinical Trial Design for Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease” and the “COVID-19 in Type 2 Diabetic Liver”.

The Drug Discovery Institute has received a Shared Instrumentation Grant (S10) of over one million dollars to purchase a new state-of-the-art Opera Phenix High Content Imaging System.  The instrument will support drug discovery and advanced biomedical research requiring HCS in the Pittsburgh region, as exemplified by projects that span a wide range of applications, including: genetically modified cellular models; zebrafish chemical screening; human microphysiology systems; and microvascular organoids from pluripotent stem cells.  The range of diseases is likewise broad and reflects the diversity of biomedical research in the Pittsburgh area, including: NAFLD, Type 2 Diabetes, Liver Cancer,  Neurodegenerative diseases, and Metastatic Cancer, as well as other initiatives across the institution.

NCATS Press Release for Clinical Trials on Chips grant: NIH Awards $35.5 Million to Use Tiny, Bioengineered Organ Models to Improve Clinical Trials’ Development and Design

Drs. D. Lansing Taylor (Drug Discovery Institute and Dept of Computational and Systems Biology), Alejandro Soto-Gutierrez (Dept of Pathology and McGowan Institute) and Jaideep Behari (Dept of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and Director of the UPMC Fatty Liver, Obesity and Wellness Clinic) are Mulit-PIs on an NIH funded grant “ A vascularized patient-derived iPSC liver acinus microphysiology system as an innovative precision medicine platform for optimizing clinical trial design for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Spatial domain analysis predicts risk of colorectal cancer recurrence and infers associated tumor microenvironment networks

Lawrence Vernetti, Keynote speaker at the 5th International Conference on Drug Discovery, Development and Lead Optimization, November 21-23, 2019, Boston, MA (Drug Discovery-2019).

Albert Gough presenting at the 2019 Organ on a Chip World Congress, October 15, 2019, San Diego, CA.

Publication: Applications of the Microphysiology Systems Database for Experimental ADME-Tox and Disease Models. bioRxiv, September 25, 2019

D. Lansing Taylor, PhD presenting at the 3D Tissue Models meeting, September 4-6, 2019, Boston, MA.

Albert Gough presenting at Johnson Space Center, August 22, 2019, Houston, Tx.

Albert Gough presenting at the Technology Collaboration Center Data Analytics Workshop, August 21, 2019, Rice University, Houston TX.

Publication: Mutant huntingtin disrupts mitochondrial proteostasis by interacting with TIM23. PNAS, August 13, 2019

Publication: Defective HNF4alpha-dependent gene expression as a driver of hepatocellular failure in alcoholic hepatitis. Nature Communications, July 16, 2019

Mark Miedel presenting at the 31st Annual UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Scientific Retreat and Satellite Conference, June 21, 2019, University of Pittsburgh.

Publication: Harnessing Human Microphysiology Systems as Key Experimental Models for Quantitative Systems Pharmacology. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, June 15, 2019

Publication: Modeling the Effect of the Metastatic Microenvironment on Phenotypes Conferred by Estrogen Receptor Mutations Using a Human Liver Microphysiological System. Scientific Reports, June 6, 2019

Publication: GP78 Cooperates with Dual-Specificity Phosphatase 1 To Stimulate Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-Mediated Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase Signaling. Molecular Cell Biology, June 1, 2019

D. Lansing Taylor, PhD presenting at the SOT meeting, March 12, 2019, Baltimore, MD.

D. Lansing Taylor, PhD presenting at the NCATS-NASA State of the Science Meeting. December 4, 2018 “3D Tissues and Microphysiological Systems”

D. Lansing Taylor, PhD presenting at the FNIH BC-CSB Symposium, November 5-6th, 2018, Bethesda, Maryland.

D. Lansing Taylor, PhD presenting at the University of Miami, October 10th, 2018, Miami, Florida.

D. Lansing Taylor, PhD presenting at an NIH workshop, September 13-14th, 2018, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

D. Lansing Taylor, PhD presenting at the University of North Carolina School of Pharmacy, September 10, 2018, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Dr. Mark Schurdak and Dr. Albert Gough, September 1, 2018, awarded 2-year NIH grant to continue development of the “University of Pittsburgh Microphysiology Systems Database Center”.

Dr. Lansing Taylor, August 1, 2018, awarded 4-year grant “Applying a Human Liver Microphysiology System to Develop Therapeutic Strategies for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)”

Dr. Lansing Taylor, August 1, 2018 awarded 2-year grant to develop a “Human Microphysiology Systems Disease Model of Type 2 Diabetes Starting with Liver and pancreatic Islets”

Dr. Lansing Taylor along with Dr. John Wikswo, August 1, 2018, awarded 5-year grant to “Harness human brain and liver microphysiological systems for testing therapeutics for metastatic melanoma”

D. Lansing Taylor, PhD presenting at the North American meeting of the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics, July 16th-18, 2018, Montreal, Canada. “A Human Liver Microphysiology System for Drug Discovery and development”

Connecting Neuronal Cell Protective Pathways and Drug Combinations in a Huntington’s Disease Model through the Application of Quantitative Systems Pharmacology

Dr. Lansing Taylor receives funding along with Dr. David Okonkwo

Dr. Andreas Vogt receives funding along with Dr. Quasar Padiath

Dr. Albert Gough receives funding along with Mimetas

Publication: Liver ‘organ on a chip’

Dr. Albert Gough receives funding along with Mimetas

Dr. Lansing Taylor receives funding along with Dr. David Okonkwo

Connecting Neuronal Cell Protective Pathways and Drug Combinations in a Huntington’s Disease Model through the Application of Quantitative Systems Pharmacology

Dr. Lawrence Vernetti receives funding to develop a human microphysiology, microfluidic liver with a functional bile duct

Dr. Andreas Vogt receives NIH funding for in vivo High content screening for acute kidney injury ameliorating drugs

Pitt Awarded Grant to Establish One of Three National Tissue Chip Testing Centers

Dr. Lansing Taylor receives funding to create models of childhood liver disease

Dr. Lansing Taylor receives NIH funding to develop tools for heterogeneity analysis

Dr. Andreas Vogt receives NIH funding to study Dab2 inhibitors in Cystic Fibrosis

Dr. Albert Gough receives joint SBIR funding to develop a hepatotoxicity platform

QSP-PM Workshop (November 19 and 20, 2013)

QSP-based program in Metastatic Breast Cancer

QSP-based Pogram in Huntington’s Disease

Nathan Yates joins the UPDDI as Chemical Proteomics group leader

Dr. Jeremy Berg is named as an Associate Director of the University of Pittsburgh Drug Discovery Institute

A new vision of drug discovery and development

University of Pittsburgh, UPMC Announce First Awards Made from Research Fund

Pitt Researchers Developing Liver and Joint “Tissue Chips” to Better Predict Drug Safety

Survivin Is a Therapeutic Target in Merkel Cell Carcinoma

University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Enter Partnership with Johnson & Johnson Corporate Office of Science and Technology to Jointly Fund Research

Spotlight on Research: Top-Notch Researchers Propel Pitt’s Drug Discovery Institute

How to Navigate the Maze of Drug Discovery