Ochre Bio

A few weeks ago, we opened the doors to our new ‘liver ICU’, a one-of-a-kind perfusion laboratory in New York City.   This new site houses our late-stage validation facilities, including one of the largest ex-vivo machine perfusion lab of human donor livers in the world, allowing us to run the clinical trial before the clinical trial.   None of this happens without people: our team, our partners and above all the extraordinary generosity of organ donors in the US. Together, we will deliver therapies that can change outcomes for the 1.5 million people who die of chronic liver disease each year.   Thank you to everyone who joined us in New York, and to everyone helping push our human-first research forward.   Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. OrganOx The International Institute for the Advancement of Medicine (IIAM) MTF Biologics

We’ve developed the world’s first Organ ICU: a platform built to test drug candidates in intact human livers maintained under near-physiological conditions. In our New York lab, donor livers are connected to perfusion rigs that circulate warm, oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood. These experiments typically run for 5 to 10 days, tracking real-time physiological outputs, including biomarker levels and bile production. Each liver is monitored across multiple dosing arms and experimental conditions. After perfusion, we culture tissue samples from the same livers, giving us the opportunity to investigate fibrosis, regeneration and RNA uptake beyond the perfusion window. This system bridges our validation platform and the therapies we’re developing – essentially becoming the clinical trial before the clinical trial. In our next science post, we’ll walk through how our RNA platform turns targets into potential drug candidates. Visit the Ochre website to learn more about how we are helping to decode and treat complex liver disease ➡️ https://www.ochre-bio.com/

At Lexogen, we’ve spent nearly two decades perfecting the art of RNA sequencing, and our partnership with Ochre Bio showed us the power of purpose-built sequencing for AI-driven target prediction and drug discovery. Designing high-quality RNA-Seq from the beginning is crucial for the AI models that power liver disease research. By aligning with Ochre's vision and computational needs, we helped build a robust dataset that will change how diseases are understood and treated. This collaboration highlights one key lesson: Data quality = AI quality. Check out the full conversation between Lexogen’s CEO Stephane Barges 🕊 and Julian Maller of Ochre Bio: https://lnkd.in/ehvYSN7p #RNASeq #AIDrugDiscovery #Genomics #FunctionalGenomics #AIinBiotech

At Ochre Bio, we are setting the standard for AI-driven liver disease research. Our partnership with Lexogen was built on one clear goal: delivering high-fidelity discovery datasets to enable breakthrough AI models. Julian Maller, our Head of In Silico, spoke to Stephane Barges 🕊, CEO of Lexogen about our partnership. Read Julian's article below:

In partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim, we’ve taken on what many considered out of reach: triggering hepatocyte regeneration in diseased human liver tissue. By using siRNA to inhibit selected genes, we are able to induce hepatocyte proliferation across multiple donors. The regenerative response was confirmed by labelling and staining in diseased liver tissue slices (shown below). What’s more, the response is tunable. Proliferation ramps up with an inducer and slows down with an inhibitor, giving us a way to control regeneration directly in human liver tissue. Together, our fibrosis and regeneration models represent two of the most advanced human systems for liver disease. Both processes are exceptionally difficult to model, yet they are central to developing therapies that could restore function in patients with cirrhosis and beyond. In our next post, we’ll scale up to whole human livers in our world-first Organ ICU, where we test candidate therapies directly in human livers before they reach clinical trial. Visit the Ochre website to learn more about how we are helping to decode and treat complex liver disease ➡️ https://www.ochre-bio.com/

Wehey, another fabulous Arias Symposium. Thank you so much American Liver Foundation and our hosts for bringing the lovers of liver together! And thanks Sangeeta Bhatia for reminding us that the liver is very deserving of Nobel laureate poetry: https://lnkd.in/gXvQUvZP

We’ve achieved a breakthrough in modelling human liver fibrosis: developing a robust and reproducible human tissue culture system that captures disease progression. In our previous post, we introduced how we work with diseased human liver tissue. Here, we focus on one of its most important applications: modelling fibrosis, a major challenge in late-stage liver disease. Our model reproduces key features of fibrosis, including matrix scarring, stellate cell activation, and tissue remodelling. In the example below, Vimentin and α-SMA staining highlight the stellate-to-myofibroblast transition, a hallmark of fibrotic progression, with clear differences between control and fibrotic tissue. What makes this model distinctive is that it preserves the complexity of tissue already affected by disease. This allows us to study advanced pathology in a clinically meaningful way and evaluate how potential therapies might work in patients. This gives us a way to generate functional evidence in intact human tissue, building a bridge between discovery insights and clinical translation where animal models often fall short. In the next post in our science series, we’ll explore how the same platform can be used to study the opposite process: regeneration. Visit the Ochre website to learn more about how we are helping to decode and treat complex liver disease ➡️ https://www.ochre-bio.com/

Ochre Bio is heading to the 34th Annual Irwin M. Arias Symposium, 2 December 2025. Our CEO, Quin Wills, will be on site in Cambridge, MA connecting with researchers and clinicians from across the liver space. Organised by the American Liver Foundation, the symposium brings together the academic, industrial and clinical hepatology communities for a day of talks and networking, aimed at advancing the diagnosis and treatment of liver disease. If you’re attending, Quin would be pleased to meet. Reach out to him if you would like to connect.

At Ochre, we know the first step to developing better medicine is to generate better data. AI platforms are only as powerful as the data fuelling them.   Lexogen’s proprietary THOR technology and expert RNA-Seq service has delivered outstanding data at a large-scale enabling better target predictions in the future.   Thank you to the Lexogen team for supporting Ochre’s mission to end the need for liver transplants.

𝗔 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗜𝗣𝗘 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗡𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗣 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗣𝗨𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗘 Biotech–pharma collaborations work best when they’re built on trust, shared purpose and a relentless focus on delivery. At Ochre Bio, we believe true partnership with Pharma should go beyond collaboration — it should deliver measurable impact for patients. Biotechs bring agility, novel science and an entrepreneurial mindset. Pharma brings reach, experience and executional scale. That combination of complementary qualities means that together, we can accelerate innovation where it’s needed most. Ochre Bio’s successful data collaboration with GSK is an example of this principle in action. The project delivered foundational insights into liver biology — advancing the understanding of the mechanisms that drive liver disease, and moving us closer to our mission of ending the need for liver transplants. The success of the Ochre–GSK partnership was built on five golden rules of collaboration: 🎯 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 & 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 – We exist to end the need for liver transplants. This collaboration enabled both Ochre and GSK to deepen understanding of the liver’s biology — a shared goal that kept us aligned and focused. 🤝 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲 & 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 – The data were generated using Ochre’s proprietary human liver R&D platform — the first and only one of its kind for discovery and validation. GSK’s expertise and scale turned that innovation into tangible outcomes. 💬 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁, 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 & 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 – Clear, open communication and data-driven decision-making defined our approach. Integrity and partnership delivered progress. 🧭 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 & 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 – Every Ochre project is built on defined deliverables, milestones, and contingency plans. That same discipline guided our GSK collaboration to successful delivery. 💡 𝗙𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 & 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 – Guided by Clarke’s Third Law — “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” — we foster an obsessive culture of innovation that makes us best in class. The Ochre–GSK collaboration demonstrates what can be achieved when biotech precision meets pharma ambition. It’s a model for how partnerships can not only promise value — but deliver it. For Ochre, this is just the beginning. For more details on the successful delivery of the Ochre-GSK Collaboration please see below: https://lnkd.in/eGmektm3