Stemnovate, the Liver-on-chip pioneers, has been awarded nearly £100,000 in a challenge designed to create an alternative to animal testing for the development of yellow fever vaccines.
The ImmuLiver competition is sponsored by pharmaceutical company Sanofi and run by NC3Rs- a UK scientific organisation dedicated to replacing, refining and reducing (the 3Rs) the use of animals in research and testing.
The yellow fever vaccine is currently tested on macaques, which replicates the pathophysiology of the disease in humans.
A mosquito-borne flavivirus, yellow fever affects people in tropical areas of South America and Africa. It affects the liver and can lead to acute hepatitis and severe haemorrhaging. If it infects the central nervous system, it can be deadly.
