This past November 2023, Obatala Sciences ™ announced the commercial launch of its ObaCell® Obesity-on-a-Chip Service, a bioengineered model of human adipose tissue. The product is a 96-well plate of 3D cells and culture media that reproduces the physiological environment of obese patients. This first-in-class technology hopes to reduce cost and resources associated with investigating metabolic diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, and cancer.
Obatala Sciences™ is a biotech company founded in 2017 in New Orleans with the mission of promoting diversity in clinical research. The company’s name stems from the West African mythology of the god Obatala who was said to sculpt the human body from mud and clay. As such, Obatala Sciences™ aims to create human cellular tissue models that embrace all beings, regardless of ethnicity, age, or gender. Driven by this mission, they have built a comprehensive stem cell biobank, cell culture reagents, and a pipeline of human-derived hydrogels for cultivating cells.
The science behind Obesity-on-a-Chip is derived from a group of patents licensed from Harvard University’s Disease Biophysics Group. The lab focuses on advancing tissue engineering techniques to better understand the extracellular matrix’s role in disease processes. The technology licensed to Obatala Sciences™ is based on microphysiological systems (MPS), which are 3D multicellular, in-vitro models that mimic the human body in a more precise manner than traditional animal models. Scientists use MPS to simulate human states, such as fed or starved; the model then mimics the specific hormonal activity of adipose tissue. The ultimate objective of MPS is to replace drug testing using animal models, which tends to be more expensive and less predictive. In addition, traditional human trials are often limited by lack of diverse patient populations, reducing the generalizability of results. MPS help address this concern by allowing researchers to gather more accurate data from a variety of demographics. Obesity-on-a-Chip’s launch is especially relevant given the recent Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act 2.0. The bill states that pharmaceutical companies are now able to use data from MPS models to bolster Investigational New Drug filings. Through this revision, Obesity-on-a-Chip can help progress life-changing medications from the preclinical phase to the commercialization stage at a faster rate.
Other assets owned by the company include the ObaCell® Pancreatic Beta Islet-on-a-Chip, a similar product to Obesity-on-a-Chip but specifically modeled after the human pancreas. This technology may facilitate drug development in the diabetes space, as it can accurately reflect human weight, age, and BMI. The future pipeline also includes organoid models for bone, muscle, and liver cells.
Obatala Sciences™ was founded by Dr. Trivia Frazier, PhD, MBA, who is also the CEO and President. Frazier earned degrees in physics and biomedical engineering from Tulane and Dillard Universities. She also completed a PhD in biomedical sciences from Tulane’s School of Medicine and an MBA from the Freeman School of Business. Frazier’s interest in the biotech industry began when her mother was diagnosed with Paget’s disease, a chronic disorder that leaves bones weak and deformed. Paget’s commonly affects older men and research at the time was ill equipped to understand the disease’s clinical presentation in a young, Black woman.
The foundation of Obatala Sciences™ is based on Frazier’s post-doctoral research at Tulane University as a member of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. There, Frazier met Dr. Jeffery Kimble, MD, PhD and Dr. Xiying Wu, MD, who cofounded Obatala Sciences™ with her In 2017. The team originally operated out of the New Orleans BioInnovation Center but later relocated to a larger space at the Advanced Materials Research Institute at the University of New Orleans. One of the company’s missions is to put New Orleans on the map as biotech incubator city and help spur the local job economy. Frazier, a New Orleans native herself, has noted that “there weren’t any biomedical centers here in New Orleans that focus on tissue engineering, and that’s what I did, so I could contribute to increasing jobs within the biotech industry.” Obatala Sciences™’s latest expansion is the result of a partnership with The Beach at UNO, a 30-acre research park district in New Orleans that provides space for innovative technology and science companies. The move will allow the company to expand manufacturing to meet their large demand and expand their market.
Obatala Sciences™’s fast growth has propelled over $10MM in funding. The company’s latest financing initiative was a Series A round that closed in late 2022. The round raised $3MM and was led by être Venture Capital and Ochsner Lafayette General Healthcare Innovation Fund II. It was also joined by Benson Capital Partners, Elevate Capital Fund, and The Hackett-Robertson-Tobe Group. être Venture Capital Partner Jennifer Kuan commented, “Obatala®’s solutions enable their customers to significantly reduce failure rates, reduce the time to market, and thereby reduce costs. Combine that with Obatala®’s extensive intellectual property portfolio, manufacturing strength, and rapidly growing customer base, and you can see why Obatala is positioned to be a leader in the 3D culture market.”