Hurel Corporation Announces Grant Program Based On Its 3-D Tissue Construct Technologies, Readies Call For Research Proposals From Academic Community

NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J., Sept. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Hurel Corporation ("Hurel"), a leading developer of cell-based tissue constructs and microfluidic assay platforms that can improve the speed and accuracy of pre-clinical prediction in drug development, today announced an ambitious new research grant program to spur innovation in the use of its cell-based models in pharmaceutical and industrial toxicological research.  The company said it is prepared to commit in aggregate up to $150,000 under the grant program, and that it intends to invite qualified academic research scientists to submit funding proposals for projects that will seek to trailblaze new uses and applications for Hurel's high-functioning, long enduring hepatic tissue cultures.

Hurel focuses on the production of 3-dimensional tissue cultures that simulate and predict the in vivo function of the liver and other organs.  The Company recently launched its Hurelhuman™, Hureldog™, and Hurelrat™ product lines, which are created from the primary (i.e., actual) liver cells of the respective species.  Hureldog™ is the first characterized, 3-D tissue culture product based on primary liver cells from the canine species.

"Over the past three decades, my colleagues and I have developed and tested several different hepatic tissue constructs, many of which are utilized by researchers today, such as gel-overlay hepatocyte cultures and micropatterned co-cultures," said Martin Yarmush, MD, PhD, Hurel's Chief Scientific Adviser.  "In the evolution of these hepatic models, the Hurel^® co-culture is the first that we deliberately engineered for use in industrial scientific research, where manufacturing efficiency, ability to replicate results, and ease of use in the lab are virtues of an importance equal to that of the cellular competency of the model itself. With such a 'workhorse' platform in hand, we are intensely curious to see how our academic colleagues, drawing on their knowledge and their scientific imaginations, may seek to probe its capabilities and push the envelope of its potential applications."

The formal Call for Proposals document is currently being finalized and Hurel anticipates releasing it in late October, 2013.  The Call for Proposals will be available through Hurel's website -- http://hurelcorp.com/.  The anticipated application deadline is January 30, 2014 and the Company expects that grant awards will be announced by March 15, 2014.  Hurel's Scientific Advisory Board ("SAB") will serve as the grant review committee.  Hurel's SAB includes, among others, Leslie Z. Benet, Ph.D., Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco; Martin Yarmush, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers University and Head of the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; and James MacDonald, Ph.D., DABT, formerly the Executive Vice President for Pre-Clinical Discovery, Schering-Plough Research Institute.

About Hurel

Hurel Corporation, based in North Brunswick, NJ and Beverly Hills, CA, is a world-leading provider of advanced artificial tissue constructs and microfluidic cell-based assay platforms that are used by major pharmaceutical research organizations  in pre-clinical drug development, as well as in the toxicological testing of industrial materials and consumer products.  More information about Hurel can be found at http://hurelcorp.com/ .

SOURCE Hurel Corporation