Funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) will expand Hesperos’ physiologically relevant Malaria-on-a-Chip model to bridge critical translational gaps and accelerate the evaluation of next-generation antimalarial therapies.
ORLANDO, FLORIDA, 22 October 2026: Hesperos, Inc., a global leader focused on improving preclinical drug development with its Human-on-a-Chip® (HoaC) single- and multi-organ system platforms, has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant (R44AI197758) from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Under this new award, Hesperos will expand upon its phenotypic Malaria-on-a-Chip platform, enhancing its physiological relevance to provide a predictive, human-based preclinical platform for novel therapeutic development. Building on groundwork previously published in Scientific Reports and Advanced Science, the enhanced platform reproduces the parasite lifecycle and evaluates therapeutic response without relying on non-predictive animal models.
Project Highlights & Outcomes
Viable, Replicating Parasite Strains: Unlike controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) clinical studies, which rely on weakened, non-replicating strains, the HoaC platform accommodates fully viable, replicating parasite strains to track real-time replication rates, organ parasite burden, and parasite recrudescence.
Physiologically Relevant Human Biology: Recreates infected erythrocyte sequestration and parasite-induced immune responses to accurately reflect human clinical pathology.
Chronic Efficacy and Toxicity Profiling: Enables researchers to evaluate parasite clearance and multi-organ toxicity simultaneously under sequential dosing regimens and combination therapies.
Predictive PK/PD Translation: Integrates a novel therapeutic delivery method with predictive pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) modeling to translate in vitro functional findings into actionable in vivo outcomes.
Why It Matters
Malaria remains an urgent global public health threat, accounting for more than 280 million cases and roughly 610,000 deaths worldwide in 2024 according to the World Health Organization. As resistance to existing frontline treatments spreads, there is a critical need to accelerate the discovery and validation of novel, long-acting antimalarial compounds.
Current drug development pipelines face severe translational bottlenecks:
Animal models often fail to capture human-specific immune reactions, organ toxicities, or parasite biology.
Controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) trials are limited to attenuated, non-replicating strains, preventing researchers from studying true disease recrudescence or real-time parasite burden.
Hesperos’ Malaria-on-a-Chip platform overcomes these hurdles by providing a cost-effective, high-fidelity human system that evaluates both drug efficacy and systemic safety before compounds enter human trials.
“Bridging the gap between preclinical studies and clinical reality is one of the toughest challenges in infectious disease research. By expanding our platform to support viable, replicating strains while capturing sequestration and multi-organ responses, we can provide developers with predictive PK/PD data that significantly de-risks new antimalarial therapies and speeds effective solutions to patients worldwide”
James J. Hickman, PhD
Chief Scientist, Hesperos, Inc.
Discover how we can advance your pipeline faster and more efficiently
Explore Other Hesperos News
Hesperos Awarded NIH Phase II Grant to Advance Malaria-on-a-Chip Platform for Novel Therapeutics
Funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) will expand Hesperos’ physiologically relevant Malaria-on-a-Chip model to bridge critical translational gaps and accelerate the evaluation of next-generation antimalarial therapies. ORLANDO, FLORIDA, 22 October 2026: … Read More
Hesperos and UCF Showcase First-of-its-Kind Human-on-a-Chip® Comorbidity Model to Accelerate Drug Discovery for Aging Populations
Hesperos and UCF publish new study in Alzheimer’s and Dementia demonstrating peripheral neuromuscular pathology is NOT CNS dependent in Alzheimer’s Disease
Advancing Human-Relevant Science: Hesperos Featured in ‘The New Gold Standard’ Documentary
The Hesperos team recently gathered for a private screening of the upcoming feature documentary, The New Gold Standard: Cutting Edge Science That’s Replacing Animal Testing. As pioneers in human-on-a-chip technology, our routine focus centers on the … Read More