Imagine if chemical substances could be tested safely, rapidly and ethically – with no mice or other furry animals involved. Swiss start-up Nagi Bioscience has developed a smart solution: a testing lab in a single chip that can be used for predictive toxicology and to test drugs, which is indispensable in the agrochemical, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. It is the first organism-on-a-chip commercially available.

Modern life exposes us to hundreds of substances per day, from the cosmetics we put on our skin to the cleaning products used at the office. Before a new substance is released, scientists conduct toxicity tests to check whether it is harmful for humans. This has often meant testing on animals, usually mice. However, amid rising public concern about animal welfare, the EU and Switzerland have urged companies to treat testing on animals as a last resort and develop alternative test methods. Scientists now need to apply for ethical approval before testing on animals, which can delay research for months.

“Nagi’s mission is to offer an answer to this urgent need for a new alternative to animal testing which is faster, cost-effective and ethically sustainable in the future,” explains Matteo Cornaglia, the co-founder and CEO. “Our work has great potential to improve people’s lives, as we provide a new tool to help ensure that the substances that we all encounter in our everyday lives are fully safe for us and for the environment. This is a major issue today, as the number of new chemical substances produced every day grows exponentially.”

From its base in Lausanne, the start-up has developed an alternative testing method that is fast, reliable and cost-effective. A spinoff of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), it was co-founded by Cornaglia, a microtechnology expert, and biologist Laurent Mouchiroud, who is now the CSO. Together, they manage an interdisciplinary team with expertise ranging from bioassays to software development. The start-up’s advisors include senior academics specialising in drug discovery, toxicology and medical technology.

Nagi’s solution relies on a tiny worm known by its Latin name, C. elegans (Mouchiroud’s area of expertise). Despite its diminutive size, the worm carries massive potential: biologist Sydney Brenner received the Nobel Prize in Physiology for his work on it. Although the worm is just 1mm long, its skin, muscles and neurons are similar to humans’ – in fact, it shares 80% of our genes. The worm is an invertebrate, which means that it is not subject to animal testing bans. However, they are still more complex then cellular models, which enables scientists to test substances’ impact on a wider range of aspects, including reproductive or developmental toxicity. The worms mature much faster than mammals, which allows researchers to speed up tests. This is valuable when studying the effects of ageing and congenital disease (a single experiment involving mice can take years to complete). In short, the worm is the ideal model organism.

“The worms mature much faster than mammals, which allows researchers to speed up tests”

“Even if we work on worms, we think about the human being,” says Professor Johan Auwerx, director of the Laboratory for Integrated and Systems Physiology at the EPFL, who is one of Nagi’s scientific advisers, speaking to Verve Ventures in a recent interview. For instance, monitoring the worms’ movements can offer valuable insights into disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. “A Parkinson patient will develop discrete defects in his movements early on, and so will the worm,” he highlights. Through worm-based experiments, scientists can identify the turning points when Parkinson’s disease becomes irreversible – and what kind of drug or nutrition can postpone these turning points for as long as possible, he explains.

Compared to a lab full of mice, the worms are extremely low-maintenance. They are encased in microfluid on single-use chips that are ready for use. Compact and self-contained, the chips can be shipped across borders and stored almost indefinitely in the freezer. The food needed for the worms to grow is included in the chips. The testing process is remarkably streamlined: the chips are placed in the special testing device developed by Nagi, which is the size of a desktop printer. A patent-protected “worm valve” distributes the worms between different testing chambers. Up to 96 independent read-outs can be held in parallel. Unlike traditional testing methods, Nagi’s provides unlimited data points per test. The results are analysed directly on a laptop using dedicated software, which can be used to monitor substances’ impact on aspects such as development, reproduction, embryo formation, movement and survival. This setup eliminates manual work, saves money and significantly speeds up research.

By providing “in vivo” testing at the “in vitro scale”, Nagi fills a major gap in the toxicology testing market, which gives its solution considerable commercial potential. Although several companies already work with C. elegans in their R&D departments, they mainly use manual or semi-automated protocols, which can be slow and expensive. “Nagi offers companies the unprecedented possibility to test their scientific hypotheses and screen their compounds at a fraction of the cost and time required by traditional animal testing and in an ethically sustainable way,” Cornaglia emphasises. “By applying our cutting-edge microfluidic technology to their existing processes, we can dramatically improve their screening performance, not only in terms of protocol automation but also with regard to the standardization, reproducibility and throughput of results.”