Can stem-cell-derived models revolutionize drug discovery?

The pharmaceutical industry continues to struggle to bring new and innovative medicines to the market. Possible reasons for these challenges are the paradigms currently used during drug discovery and development. Over the last 15 years, our ability to study the pathology of human disease has increased tremendously. For example, the advent of human embryonic stem cells, and later the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells, now make it possible to access large quantities of human specialized cells, address the issue of genetic diversity and to create disease models in a culture dish. Recently, the potential of pluripotent stem-cell technologies in the pursuit of new medicines has been demonstrated through the in vitro recreation of many human diseases, and the subsequent use of these models in proof-of-concept drug screens. Ultimately, this can, together with the unlimited access to relevant human cells, aid in reducing both cost and attrition rate of new drug candidates. The field is now open for large-scale application of stem-cell-derived cells for both drug screening and safety assessment.