3-D Bioprinting Sector

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Organovo - AACR update -


http://biz.yahoo.com/e/140410/onvo8-k.html



>>> 10-Apr-2014


Regulation FD Disclosure



Item 7.01 Regulation FD Disclosure

On April 10, 2014, Organovo Holdings, Inc. (the "Company") released the following information to update investors on the results of its initial study of 3D breast tissues generated with its NovoGen MMX Bioprinter? in breast cancer models. The Company presented these results at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) held on April 5-9, 2014 in San Diego, California.

Results from the Company's initial study showed the following:

? The Company's NovoGen MMX Bioprinter technology can successfully fabricate 3D breast tissues consisting of cancer cells, fibrous stroma, adipose tissue, and microvasculature on a reproducible basis.

? 3D bioprinting enables compartmentalization of the breast tissue, with tumor epithelium controllably surrounded by stromal tissue.

? Histologic and metabolic (Alamar Blue and ATP) measurements highlighted a consistency in printing from construct to construct.

? The Company's experiments involving the delivery of fluorescently-tagged drugs to its 3D breast tissues indicate:

? Some drugs like methotrexate, which is small and hydrophilic, can fully penetrate our 3D bioprinted tissues, allowing us to assess the effects of drugs throughout the full thickness of the tissue.

? Other drugs, like paclitaxel, which is large and lipophilic, which are known to have trouble penetrating solid tumors due to dense stroma presence, charge, or other factors, are similarly modeled in the Company's 3D breast tissues.

? The Company's head-to-head comparisons of common anti-cancer drugs (cisplatin, methotrexate, paclitaxel) in MCF-7 2D tissue cultures versus the MCF-7-containing 3D tissues developed by the Company showed clear, differential responses:

? Total 3D tissue viability was decreased in response to cisplatin, but histologic analyses of the cisplatin-treated tissues showed that the bulk of cell death occurred in the stromal fraction, with the tumor epithelial cells demonstrating resistance to the drug.

? In contrast, the 3D tissue system was resistant to methotrexate-mediated toxicity compared to the 2D tissue culture system. Based on studies with labeled compound, this cannot be attributed simply to lack of penetration.

These early results from the Company's initial study confirm that the 2D culture systems were not effective in modeling drug responses in complex, multi-cellular tissue systems, like breast cancer. Furthermore, these early results suggest that utilizing 3D tissues may enable researchers to make compartment-specific assessments (i.e., epithelium, stroma, vasculature) of drug response - something that is not currently possible outside of in vivo models to date.

As previously announced, on April 10, 2014, Keith Murphy, the Company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer , will be participating in a live webcast presentation to investors via RetailInvestorConferences.com. The presentation will take place at 12:00 PM ET, and investors may access the presentation at www.retailinvestorconferences.com > click on red "register / watch event now" button. A copy of the presentation slides will be available on the Company's website under the "Investors" tab. In addition, investors may access an on-demand archive of the presentation at www.retailinvestorconferences.com for at least 90 days.

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