T&R Biofab and CiSTEM have signed a technology transfer contract to develop the latter’s immune disease screening system jointly.

T&R Biofab said Thursday it would acquire basic drug screening technology and patient-derived cells for developing rare disease treatments and will create a mini-tissue disease model by applying it to 3D bio-printing.

In the case of some rare immune diseases, the causes of the disease are still unknown, and there is also no animal model of the disease, it said. The two companies plan to maximize the synergy of their technology and build a platform for the development of a therapeutic drug for rare immunity diseases.

T&R Biofab’s immune disease drug screening system, developed by CiSTEM, is built on cells extracted from patients with refractory immune diseases, which do not yet have a cure. The system has the advantage of simulating major pathological features of the disease, including abnormal protein secretion in the cell state.

“Since the system is made up of cells derived from several patients with different degrees or patterns of disease, it is anticipated that the drug will be highly successful in clinical trials,” a company official said. “We plan to achieve a breakthrough in the development of new drugs by combining our 3D-bioprinting technology with patient-derived cells in the development of incurable therapeutics, which lacks tools for research.”