A new laboratory platform for testing drugs can reduce pharmaceutical companies' costs for biological cells by up to 90 percent (see fact box) and reduce the use of laboratory animals. The platform, named Ethica M, was developed in a collaboration between DTU and the biotech company Sophion Bioscience.
The new platform enables faster and more precise testing of new drugs. Whereas pharmaceutical companies currently test new drugs on single cells that can give high value but limited data, with the Ethica M platform they can instead work with large batches of engineered cell-based tissues on standard culture plates that fit into industry's automated workflows. The cell tissue gives a better picture of how an organ, such as the heart, reacts to drugs and for each culture plate, pharmaceutical companies save approximately 200,000 DKK in cell costs.
The Ethica M platform was unveiled in the fall of 2025 and has now - four months after its launch - been sold to several companies in the U.S. and Europe.
"The amazing thing is that with this platform, we can determine much earlier whether a drug is safe and effective. For companies using Ethica M, this means fewer surprises and costly delays later in development. Ultimately, it's about patients receiving better and safer treatments faster," says Professor Niels Bent Larsen from DTU Health Technology.
He developed the method behind the Ethica M platform together with Sandra Wilson, PhD, Head of Innovation at Sophion Bioscience.
Mini-laboratory
At the core of the Ethica M platform is a technology developed and protected by a joint patent in a collaboration between DTU Health Technology and Sophion Bioscience. The patent describes a method for tracking the movements of engineered cell-based tissue with great precision. Sophion Bioscience has since purchased DTU's share of the patent to bring the technology to market, but the development collaboration continues.
Ethica M functions as a kind of mini-laboratory platform where researchers use stem cells to grow small pieces of living human heart or muscle tissue around two flexible measuring posts in small holes, known as wells. When the tissue contracts, the posts bend, and high-speed cameras in the system measure the extent of the bending.
When the researchers add a new drug, the movements are automatically analyzed by specially developed software that indicates whether the substance is promising or dangerous. The system's high throughput means data is captured up to 72 times faster than competing technologies, and with far fewer expensive cells.
"The crucial innovation isn't the principle behind the technology. What's new is that we've made it industrial-scale, robust, and reproducible in a format that the pharmaceutical industry can use. This has only been possible because we've had an open, trusting collaboration with Sophion Bioscience, which has given us an understanding of what matters to pharmaceutical companies," says Niels Bent Larsen.
DTU researchers have played a central role in developing the advanced 3D printing and the materials that enable the tissue to remain stable, beat rhythmically, and bend the posts uniformly from well to well—a total of 96 wells, assembled on a test plate the size of a hand, which is the standard format used by the pharmaceutical industry.
From Idea to Product
Sophion Bioscience has been working on the development of the Ethica M laboratory platform for more than ten years. The collaboration with DTU really gained momentum in the run-up to 2020.
Following Sophion Bioscience's acquisition of DTU's share of the joint patent, both DTU and Sophion Bioscience invested significant time and expertise in maturing the technology into a fully-fledged product, which today consists of a large, integrated, and automated system featuring test plates, a pipetting robot, and an advanced optical measuring instrument—all of which are part of their product for the global market.
Sandra Wilson emphasizes that DTU has played a major role in the development of the Ethica M platform through a multi-year collaboration and development process that included two industrial PhDs and a postdoc at DTU. Similarly, it was crucial that the project was supported by Innovation Fund Denmark and Eurostars, Europe's largest program for collaborative research and innovation projects for small and medium-sized enterprises.
"It is often during the transition from research idea to industrial upscaling and translation to market that good concepts are lost due to a lack of funding, equipment, and technical and commercial guidance. But with the funds' financial support, DTU's expertise in advanced 3D printing and materials technology, and Sophion's experience with automated systems and market requirements, we succeeded in maturing the technology so that it could survive the critical phase from laboratory concept to product," says Sandra Wilson.
New product line
For Sophion Bioscience, which has production facilities in the Ballerup industrial park, the Ethica M platform has led to a major strategic expansion of the company's business within automated testing technology for drug development. The development of Ethica M has led to the creation of an entirely new product line and the establishment of 13 new positions, representing a 10 percent increase in the company's workforce.
Ethica M is Sophion Biosciences' first new product line in 20 years, and Head of Innovation Sandra Wilson expects it to become just as significant a business pillar as Sophion Biosciences' existing automated patch clamp systems over the next five years.
