Project Overview
Hooke Bio is collaborating with Relevium Medical as part of the RestOAre consortium to support the development of novel osteoarthritis therapies derived from marine bioactive compounds.
The project focuses on evaluating the safety and efficacy of next-generation NeuroFlex™ therapies designed to provide long-lasting pain relief, improve joint lubrication, reduce inflammation, and slow disease progression in patients with knee osteoarthritis.
The Challenge
Many promising drug candidates fail during clinical development due to safety concerns that were not identified during traditional preclinical testing. Conventional cell culture models lack physiological complexity, while animal models often fail to accurately predict human responses.
More predictive, human-relevant testing platforms are needed to improve confidence in preclinical decision-making and reduce the risk of late-stage development failure.
The Mera™ Approach
Hooke Bio is using the Mera™ microphysiological system to evaluate the safety of novel marine-derived compounds and advanced therapeutic formulations across interconnected human tissue models.
Mera™ enables:
- Multi-tissue toxicity assessment within a single platform
- Human-relevant evaluation of drug safety and tolerability
- Longitudinal monitoring of tissue health and function
- Advanced imaging and functional analysis
- Generation of translational safety data to support development decisions
Potential Impact
This collaboration aims to establish a more predictive approach to safety assessment while
accelerating the development of innovative osteoarthritis treatments.
Key outcomes include:
- Early identification of potential safety liabilities.
- Generation of human-relevant toxicity data.
- Reduction in reliance on less predictive preclinical models.
- Improved confidence in candidate selection.
- Support for regulatory and clinical development pathways.
By integrating advanced human tissue models with multi-organ analysis, the project seeks to reduce development risk, improve clinical translation, and support the delivery of safer therapies to patients faster.
