Science AMA Series: I am Dr. Albert Li, CEO of IVAL. We provide products
and research to improve drug development and make drugs safer and more
effective before they reach clinical trials. AMA!
Abstract
Hello, r/Science! I am Albert Li, President and CEO of In Vitro ADMET
Laboratories (IVAL), located in Columbia, MD and Malden, MA. For the
past three decades, I have devoted my scientific career to the
improvement and application of human-based in vitro experimental systems
(experiments done outside of a living body) in the development of
pharmaceuticals. In 2004, I founded IVAL, an organization dedicated to
creating innovative approaches to the evaluation of human drug
properties. We strive to develop products and preclinical applications
that help scientists study how the body processes a compound, how that
compound interacts with others already in the body, and predict any
potential harm that the compound may cause. This improves the drug
discovery process, allowing for more accurate prediction of drug safety
and efficacy in the early phases of drug research and ensuring that only
the safest and most promising candidates move on to clinical trials. One
achievement in this effort is the Integrated discrete Multiple Organ
Co-Culture experimental tool (IdMOC). This testing plate consists of
multiple wells that can be seeded with cells from different organs.
These wells are then connected by an overlying medium, which allows for
well-to-well communication, mimicking the way organs communicate within
the body. Researchers can then apply a test compound to the target cell
type and assess how the compound might travel through the body and
affect other organs. In addition to providing far more complete
information on drug metabolism and interaction, the IdMOC can allow for
the refinement, reduction, and replacement of live animal usage in drug
research. This not only aides animal welfare but also creates more
accurate data, since the use of human cells can provide human-specific
information that cannot be obtained with laboratory animals. We also
work on optimizing cryopreservation of primary human and animal cells,
particularly hepatocytes, a major cell type found in the liver.
Hepatocytes play an important role in metabolizing outside compounds and
altering them so that they can be excreted from the body. This makes
them vital to drug research and development. Cryopreservation is an
ideal method for long term storage and allows researchers to have a
steady supply of cells available for experimentation. We have a (newly
minted) blog http://invitroadmetlabs.com/ as well as Twitter
https://twitter.com/InVitroADMET and Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/In-Vitro-ADMET-Laboratories-LLC-441026892766841/timeline/
. Here are links to a few of our recent papers: Evaluation of Adverse
Drug Properties with Cryopreserved Human Hepatocytes and the Integrated
Discrete Multiple Organ Co-culture (IdMOC) System
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26191380 (Full Text) In Vitro
Heptocyte-based Experimental Systems
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24805059 (Abstract) Evaluation of
Human Hepatocytes under Prolonged Culture
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25313020 (Abstract) A Novel Plated
Hepatocyte Relay Assay (PHRA) for In Vitro Evaluation of Hepatic
Metabolic Clearance of Slowly Metabolized Compounds
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26282592 (Epub Ahead of Print) Also
with me today is IVAL researcher Yang Qian (YQ) out Social Media
Coordinator, Allison Isberg (AI), who will be helping us take questions
and type answers. We will be back to answer your questions at 1 pm ET
(10 am PT, 5 pm UTC), Feel free to AUA about in vitro drug research and
development, drug toxicology, cryopreservation of cells, biomedical
entrepreneurship, or anything else you have in mind! Edit AI- Hey
everyone, that’s about all we have time for today. Thank you so much for
your questions; Dr. Li really enjoyed answering them! And thank you to
the r/Science mods for setting this up. If you’re interested in
following more of our research, please feel free to follow the Twitter
or send a PM to this account. If anyone is interested in full copies of
any of our papers, PM this account and we should be able to get those to
you. We will check back again and answer any more questions if possible.
Thanks again!