Next Generation Sensing for Human in vivo Pharmacology - Accelerating Drug Development in Inflammatory Diseases in collaboration with GSK

Led by the University of Edinburgh, Centre for Inflammation Research, the team wish to rapidly instigate, operationalise and deliver a cross-sector, multidisciplinary programme to expedite repurposing of promising pharmaceutical assets with prior use in man for lead prioritisation and evaluation in experimental clinical trials with readiness for global access. The key intervention is to prevent the lung damage in patients with COVID-19 that leads to respiratory failure, therefore reducing the need for MV and saving lives. As part of this strategy, an enabling technology is currently being developed within this EPSRC HIPS award. The goal of the original HIPS grant in collaboration with GSK was to further develop a cutting-edge point-of-care technology platform which would help drug developers, patients, doctors and healthcare workers throughout the world. This platform, KronoScan , was initially intended to be used as an ultra-sensitive microscopic imaging tool in the evaluation of drug action, with a particular focus on drug development for diseases which are characterised by infectious and inflammatory pathway-mediated tissue injury. This additional funding is to urgently expedite the translation/evaluation and use of Kronoscan in the setting of experimental medicine to evaluate novel therapies targeting fulminant respiratory failure due to ARDS.