Roche creates organoid research institute to shake up drug discovery and development

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1. Roche believes preclinical drug development is on the verge of a major change.

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2. The company has set up the Institute of Human Biology (IHB) to create better models for drug development.

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3. Current drug developers rely on animal models, which often translate poorly into humans.

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4. Roche sees human model systems, like organoids, as a more accurate predictor of patient response to drugs.

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5. IHB aims to combine biology, bioengineering, and data science around human model systems for drug discovery.

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6. Roche plans to grow IHB to around 250 scientists and bioengineers over the next four years.

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7. The IHB will collaborate with ETH Zurich and EPFL, the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology.

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8. IHB was launched a year after Roche hired organoids research pioneer Hans Clevers as head of pharma research and early development.

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9. Clevers believes human organoids can be implemented at every step of drug development, from target identification to personalized medicine.

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10. Roche's IHB is an example of the company's smart, foundational investments in research and development.

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