In Vitro Immuno Therapy Assays, or iVITA™, are Aurita’s blueprints for empowering personalized medicine with actionable data from 3D culture, enabled by an evolving system of platform technologies, components, and elements. Organoids, microtissues, and tumoroids are suspended within a bed of soft, granular microgels or Liquid Like Solids (LLS™). The composition of these microgels is readily tunable to mimic various natural extracellular matrices (ECM) in both stiffness and proteinaceous surface coating, while the intrinsic self-healing property of LLS™ allows the microenvironment to yield and reconfigure, accommodating proliferation and tissue reorganization. LLS™ maintains an additional, critical advantage over conventional scaffolding materials in the form of relatively high permeability, permitting nutrient and metabolite transport via the perfusion of liquid media when subjected to a pressure gradient as is the case in Darcy Plates™. Designed to mimic the interconnected open cell network and transport characteristics of a capillary bed, the interstitial spaces of LLS™ enable the controlled transport of chemotherapeutics, proteins, antibodies, viruses, and candidate therapeutic particles less than 2 micrometer in diameter.

Covalently bonding proteins, antibodies, and ECM components to LLS™ surfaces at defined concentrations and compositions facilitates additional biomimicry by providing extracellular matrix signaling, functionality, and context. When bioconjugated, the LLS™ platform recapitulates tumor invasion and metastasis dynamics by matching the physiological local tissue mechanics, proteinaceous environment, and both the capillary network dimensions and transport characteristics. Immune cells, either endogenous to dispersed tissues or cocultured, explore the LLS™ network naturally. Covalently bonded matrix proteins, such as COL1, facilitate the incorporation of fibroblasts and other stromal cells. The combination of the LLS™ capillary network structure, perfusion, and ECM components additionally enables the inclusion of endothelial cells within iVITA™.

LLS™ is a transparent support medium, facilitating in situ, live-cell imaging with established fluorescence microscopy techniques. This feature, in addition to the intrinsic self-healing properties of the microgel bed, enables in situ, observable 3D printing and single-cell collection during experiments. Cell identification, tracking, and path analysis are facilitated within the stable LLS™ volume via live-cell imaging. Novel, in situ measurements such as the spatiotemporal measurements of cytokine concentrations are possible owing to the transparency, stability, and microstructure of LLS™. Furthermore, a variety of medical treatment options are compatible with the LLS™ platform including radiotherapies, proton therapy, and electric-field therapies. iVITA™ facilitates the comprehensive study of organoids, tumoroids, microtissues, and immune cells in 3D within a single experiment, establishing it as a preeminent platform for multi-organ models of disease.