Opal Therapeutics has secured a $1.25 million Phase II award through the National Science Foundation’s Small Business Innovation Research program.
The San Francisco-based biotechnology company plans to use the funding to scale its patient-derived uterine organoid platform for women’s health drug discovery.
Opal is developing what it calls a “uterus in a dish,” a human tissue-based system intended to help researchers evaluate potential therapies for gynecological conditions before advancing them into clinical trials.
The company collects cells from menstrual blood and surgical biopsies to create organoid and cellular models representing the disease characteristics of individual patients.
The platform is designed to address limitations associated with traditional rodent models, which may not accurately reproduce the biology of human gynecological diseases.
Opal is initially focused on chronic conditions such as endometriosis and uterine fibroids, which can cause pelvic pain, infertility and other long-term health complications.
The NSF funding will support the expansion of Opal’s laboratory infrastructure and patient-derived organoid manufacturing capabilities.
Opal also plans to expand its imaging and inflammation assays so pharmaceutical companies can run larger drug-discovery programs using human-relevant biological data.
The company will use its growing datasets to develop a predictive “uterine atlas” connecting patient tissue information with computational analysis.
Opal believes the platform can help drug developers identify promising candidates earlier, reduce development risk and avoid spending resources on therapies unlikely to succeed in people.
KEY QUOTE:
“What’s been missing is a real bridge between big ideas and what actually helps patients. That’s the piece Opal is building. Real human uterine tissue models that let scientists see earlier which drugs are worth betting on and get those to the clinic with more confidence.”
Morgan Stanton, Ph.D., CEO of Opal Therapeutics
