A multi-institutional team of researchers, including two Northwestern University engineers, has received the largest grant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to rapidly advance the development of low-cost bioelectronic implants to treat patients with incurable diseases. Received $34 million. Obesity and type 2 diabetes, authorities announced today.
The funding will support a six-year effort to develop and test Rx On-site Generation using Electronics (ROGUE), an implantable device that delivers on-demand biological therapy to treat obesity and type 2 diabetes. support. Just a few millimeters in diameter, the implant houses living, artificial cells that synthesize and provide treatment on demand, eliminating daily or weekly injections, trips to the pharmacy, and careful storage of expensive medications. It becomes unnecessary.
“This research builds on the biohybrid research seeded at Northwestern, where we are developing regulated therapies based on engineered cell factories that can be controlled and maintained by bioelectronics. ,” the Northwestern researchers said. Jonathan Livneyco-principal investigator on the project leading device development. “This research aims to develop a minimally invasive biodevice that can be implanted subcutaneously to provide personalized and tailored treatment.”
Rivnay is a professor of biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering at Northwestern University. McCormick School of Engineering. josh leonardA professor of chemical and biological engineering at McCormick College, he will lead the development of genetic circuits that make engineered cells controllable and productive. Livney and Leonard are Synthetic Biology Center and Robert H. Lurie Northwestern University Comprehensive Cancer Center.
ROGUE is based on two projects co-led by Rivnay to develop a portable “living pharmacy.” In March 2021, Rivnay $33 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will fund the development of a fully implantable device to control the body's sleep-wake cycle. Then, in September 2023, Rivnay and collaborators up to $45 million from ARPA-H The goal is to develop a first-of-its-kind implant that can sense and autonomously treat cancer.
“Bioelectronic devices offer myriad benefits, including the delivery of tunable treatments, dynamic monitoring, and lower healthcare costs for biologics,” said ROGUE Principal Investigator, Carnegie Mellon University School of Biomedical Engineering and Tsahi Cohen-Karni, professor of materials science. project. “We are leveraging our collective strengths to develop effective and sustainable solutions to reduce the burden on chronic care for two global epidemics: obesity and type 2 diabetes.”
Rivnay and Leonard are two of 19 co-principal investigators on ROGUE's collaborative research team. This collaborative team includes engineers, physicians, and multidisciplinary experts from synthetic biology, materials science, electrical engineering, and other fields. Other principal investigators represent Georgia Tech. Rice University; University of California, Berkeley. Mayo Clinic and Bruder Consulting and Venture Group.
Established in 2022, ARPA-H is a new federal funding agency that supports research that “has the potential to transform entire fields of medicine and health.” ROGUE is funded by: ARPA-H's REACT program This includes funding first-in-human clinical trials in patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes. Trial preparations are scheduled to begin in the fifth year of the project.
