The challenges and considerations for emerging or future entrepreneurial researchers in microphysiological systems

Abstract

Microphysiological systems describe the use of divergent technologies to recapitulate complex physiology in vitro convergently in a cruelty and animal free manner. The technologies aim towards enabling researchers from academia and industry to conduct more ethical and cost-effective research and development, preclinical and translational, and to advance related fields such as precision medicine. However, projected markets appear relatively small compared to related markets, where regulatory implementation and reluctant end-user adoption creates uncertainty for the emerging technologies with associated technological maturity. Regardless of this, companies surpassed and expanded successfully beyond the predicted five-year survival rate through strategic technology- and business development through collaboration and partnerships. A hallmark of the companies is a core competency or unique intellectual property coupled with securing early investment and interest from industry role-players, using divergent strategies to create a burden-of-proof to encourage early adopter participation for technologies showing fit-for-purpose application. In this paper we aim to provide insights for the researcher who wants to become involved in the microphysiological field as an entrepreneur, requiring a generalized information landscape with keywords and concepts to expand their knowledge base. An overview is provided for the technological considerations for laboratory-to-market product development, the current state of regulatory affairs and projected markets to provide a framework of reference to evaluate the randomly selected case study companies. Public information is used to provide company information regarding historical origin, funding, and technological strategies which secured funding as well as encouraged early adopter technology interests. Additional activities by the companies showcase that there is no single formulation for commercial survival five-years post-incorporation but a pattern, dictated by technology origin, to follow which for convergent or divergent opportunities in technology development and business strategies.