Artificial Axon Labs Inc., a Massachusetts-based MIT spinout, has received a USD 1.48 million SBIR R44 Phase II renewal from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) to advance a 3D-printed biomimetic drug screening platform aimed at identifying remyelinating therapies for multiple sclerosis (MS).
The award targets one of the most persistent gaps in MS drug development: the absence of tools capable of evaluating remyelination under conditions that replicate the hostile microenvironment of active lesions. Approved disease-modifying therapies suppress new inflammatory lesion formation but do not restore myelin to existing lesions, leaving neurodegeneration and disability progression largely unaddressed.
Artificial Axon Labs' platform, called Artificial Axons, uses 3D-printed axon mimics engineered to match the geometry and mechanical stiffness of biological axons — properties that existing substrates such as glass cones or electrospun fibers fail to replicate, the company said. The assay incorporates pro-inflammatory soluble factors present in MS lesions, including interferon-gamma and myelin debris, enabling direct visualization and quantification of myelin wrapping by oligodendrocytes rather than relying on proxy measures of oligodendrocyte differentiation. The platform incorporates human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons.
The funded work targets two milestones: incorporating the key inhibitory inflammatory factors into the myelination assay, and validating the updated assay by testing how known pro-myelinating compounds perform under MS lesion-like conditions. The company said prior drug candidates identified using existing two-dimensional or mechanically unphysiological screens have shown limited clinical success.