Nano-Scale Precision Medicine

Purpose and goal

The track record of the global pharmaceutical industry in translating preclinical findings to clinical benefits and approved drugs remains a challenge. Today it takes up to 15 years and 2 B€ to develop a new drug which contributes to the escalating costs of healthcare. Our vision is to develop a functional precision medicine platform that supports testing of drugs for individual patients at a nanoliter-scale, applicable both for the pharmaceutical drug development process, as well as for molecular diagnostics in healthcare

Expected results and effects

We examined thoroughly the requirements for a common nanoliter-scale precision medicine platform to be applied in early drug discovery and in patient stratification. We have defined feasible workflows and organized future work to address key challenges and the first pilot studies have been completed. Importantly the use of a common platform that integrates complete characterization of patient material and supports the full drug discovery process generates the critical scale that motivates long-term financial investments.

Planned approach and implementation

We have established a strong consortium bridging biotech, pharmaceutical industry, clinicians and academia. Together we will have identified how weaknesses in transfer from preclinical research to clinical implementation contribute to drug efficacy, cost, commercialization. We have created a road map and concrete actions planned for realizing a new functional nanoscale platform using nanoscale multiparametric assays. With this approach we hope to provide for patient-stratification and effective drug discovery.