Intero develops gut tissue models to improve preclinical drug testing
Intero Biosystems is developing lab-grown human intestinal tissue as a way for drugmakers to study how compounds affect the gut and potentially reduce reliance on animal testing. Its organoids aim to reflect more of the human intestine than simpler cell models, addressing a key challenge in drug development: results in animals often do not translate to people, and many drugs fail in clinical trials.
The Denver-based startup’s GastroScreen organoids are about one millimetre across and are shipped in batches of roughly 100. Customers can use healthy tissue or disease-like models, and Intero also provides lab supplies and runs custom studies. Founded in 2024, it has seven employees, just under 10 customers and reported more than $400,000 in revenue from the fourth quarter of last year through the third quarter of this year; it raised $2.3 million in pre-seed funding. US regulatory moves have encouraged alternatives such as organoids, but draft guidance sets out how such methods should be validated without endorsing any specific one.
- Intero sells tiny lab-grown human gut models for testing compounds.
- The startup has just under 10 customers and seven employees.
- US guidance is opening space for non-animal testing methods.
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Drugmakers test potential medicines before giving them to people, often using animal studies and simpler laboratory cell models. But animal results do not always predict how a drug will affect people, and many medicines that enter clinical trials do not succeed.
Intero Biosystems is a young Denver company making organoids: small, lab-grown models of human intestinal tissue. Its models are designed to capture more of the gut’s structure than basic cell models, and can represent healthy tissue or certain disease-like conditions.
More realistic gut models could help researchers study how medicines affect the intestine and assess potential safety problems earlier. US regulators have encouraged the development of alternatives to animal testing, while draft guidance describes how new methods should be checked without approving any particular one.
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The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Human intestinal organoids could give drugmakers a more relevant way to detect gut effects than simpler cell tests, while addressing the poor translation of some animal results to people. If these models prove reliable, they may improve early drug decisions and reduce animal use; regulatory guidance on validating alternatives could help build confidence in them.
The case against
Organoids are promising, but their usefulness depends on showing that results reliably predict human responses across different drugs and conditions. Until they are validated and their limits are clear, relying on them too heavily could miss risks or lead researchers away from useful evidence, so animal studies and other methods may still be needed.
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Originally published by TechCrunch as “Intero Biosystems wants drugmakers to test on mini human intestines, not animals”.