The bioanalytical systems that exist today rely heavily on the prerequisite of having sufficient amount of sample for proper measurement and analysis. This is what Wilson and his former PhD student, Frøydis Sved Skottvoll who is now at SINTEF, is working on.
Read about Wilson's research and innovation project
Steven Ray Wilson is an analytical chemist working on creating and developing analytical tools for the mini organs – organoids – and organ-on-a-chip system.
One of the many promising potentials of the organoids and the organ-on-a-chip system is the significant reduction of the use of animals in drug development. The drug development process is a long, arduous and expensive process which includes the testing of drug candidates in animal models in the pre-clinical phase. These animal models typically include rats or mice, and in some cases larger animals like pigs.
The additional critical advantage of using organoids and the organ-on-a-chip system is the better identification of the effects of these drugs on humans and any unexpected side effects that perhaps were not accounted for during the transition between animal trials and human clinical trials.
Will reduce costs and improve logistics
In organ-on-a-chip-research, they study organoids which are placed onto a chip. These organoids are composed of specific programmable cells, called stem cells, organised into a 3D cell culture system and can be “smaller than a pinhead”. The chip component introduces a higher level of complexity as well as additional features to the organoids to mimic the organs that are being studied.
The significantly reduced size of this mini organ thus poses a different set of logistic challenges for measurement and analysis.
– Small systems such as the mini organs we work with, makes it necessary to have equally small devices that are able to measure the small samples that are produced. The principal challenge with the existing analytical devices for studying drugs and drug metabolites is that they are not tailored to analyse and measure these small samples, says Wilson.
The analytical tool that Wilson and his collaborating partners are in the process of developing aims to study drug metabolites from these mini organs. Drug metabolites are byproduct compounds that the body produces when metabolising or breaking down a drug. The standard method today to analyse and measure drug metabolism is by using mass spectrometry. A mass spectrometer is a highly advanced instrument with considerable costs to acquire and expertise to operate and analyse the results.
Wilson says that this results in a logistics issue where it incurs a significant financial cost of up to a million euros to the investigator and is limited to laboratories which have the space to accommodate a mass spectrometer. In addition, they would also need to have the expertise to perform the measurements themselves and analyse the results. In the absence of the latter, samples can be sent to a core facility for analysis, however this takes time and there is a possibility that the analytical methods are unsuitable for the samples.
Allows the need of less biological materials
Wilson adds that the bioanalytical systems that exist today rely heavily on the prerequisite of having sufficient amount of sample for proper measurement and analysis. This is what Wilson and his former PhD student, Frøydis Sved Skottvoll who is now at SINTEF, is working on.
They are creating a miniaturised and user-friendly analytical device that can parallel a lot of the functionalities of a mass spectrometer that will be able to be fit in a common biosafety hood and a small chip system that collects the drugs and its metabolites from the sample for further measurement and analysis. If successful, this small chip system can additionally be adapted into other devices.
– We received positive feedback from the organoid and organ-on-a-chip community regarding the invention of these tailored systems for the mini organs, focusing primarily on liver organoids. The idea is to take a drop sample from the mini organ and analyse the samples on the chip itself. We are hoping that in the future that this system can be used directly on a portable device, perhaps even an smartphone, says Wilson.
Multidisciplinary collaboration is key
Wilson who is employed at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Oslo (UiO) has had an extensive collaboration with Stefan Krauss, a developmental biologist at the Faculty of Medicine at UiO and the director of the Hybrid Technology Hub (HTH) Centre of Excellence at UiO. It was a natural transition for Wilson to continue this collaboration when Krauss began his work in organoids and organ-on-a-chip by looking at the analytical chemistry component of this technology, especially as Wilson is motivated to continue working in a multidisciplinary environment geared towards developing more specialised analytical tools which can be used in different fields such as drug development.
Wilson and his team at the chemistry department are also collaborating together with microfluids experts, physicists and computer scientists to help develop this miniaturised analytical tool and analyse samples from the organoids and organ-on-a-chip samples that are produced by the Stefan Krauss’ laboratory at the Hybrid Technlology Hub Centre of Excellence.
Wilson and his team continue their research work focusing on the liver organoids to measure the drugs and its metabolites and have submitted a ‘Disclosure of Invention’ (DOFI) to UiO’s technology transfer office Inven2 which is the first step in the patenting process. They are working on acquiring more data for the next steps in the patenting process and have also recently been accepted into the innovation program SPARK Norway run by UiO:Life Science.
Read about how Wilson has collaborated with the UiO Growth House
Wilson firstly contacted the UiO Growth House in 2023 to seek personalised advice and mentoring for the development of their products and advice on funding as well as pitching. They were successful in obtaining seed funding for setting their work in motion.
– They are very proactive in wanting to help researchers and students who have an idea for potential innovation. With their highly experienced and dedicated team who has a deep understanding from a business perspective, they are able to focus on the key elements and highlight the essence of an idea for development. It has been one of the most positive experiences I have had at the university, says Wilson.
These interactions with the UiO Growth House have also helped Wilson to promote his own department to potential high school students by showcasing the resources that the university is providing to help develop an innovative idea. Wilson was also encouraged by the Growth House to participate in an Aleap bootcamp which consists of a series of workshops on starting a startup company from several critical aspects such as financial (funding and investors acquisition), communication/pitching, and regulatory affairs.
– I have been mostly in basic research and teaching but since I have been acquainted with the UiO Growth House, I have learned skills and traits that are more related to how to create an innovation, how to fine-tune what a potential product might be and how to pitch a particular idea. They have also opened many opportunities for us to gain access to valuable mentors through their networks and helped me shift and gain a new perspective by listening to new people, says Wilson.
Innovation culture begins at the top
– Innovation per se is a common term that already existed at the university a long time ago. Nevertheless, the innovation ecosystem at UiO is still under development and the complete picture of the ecosystem here is still obscure.
– The innovation ecosystem is complicated, especially when innovation is a relatively new thing for the university to invest a significant effort into. It has been a focus for several years and has begun to become a bit more established, but it is still a moving target, says Wilson.
Wilson adds that the university in general could invest more efforts into explaining how the innovation ecosystem and infrastructure is built and how the different components tie in with each other. As a professor at the university, Wilson thinks that innovation can be compared agreeably with basic research and that the ingrained publishing-based culture that has been adopted by the university should evolve into something more long-term such as a company or a product.
– I would say that innovation is something that I think more researchers and students would find to be more interesting than they thought it would be. An increase in funding into innovation-based projects would benefit the university as these innovation projects has motivated me to want to do more high-quality basic research to be able to support these inventions, says Wilson.
He thinks a cultural change into a more innovative thinking is perhaps therefore needed to be able to reap the comprehensive benefits of all facets of research that could not only benefit the researchers and students but also the society.
– Potential students appear to be interested when they hear that there is no contradiction between university and commercialisation and I think they are already prepared to be more involved in this type of work. I think it is the professors who need to have this eureka moments to encourage this change, says Wilson.