February 11, 2026 – Schlieren, Switzerland
InSphero AG, the global market leader in 3D cell-based assays and organ-on-chip systems signed a partnership with PharmaNest Inc, a Princeton, NJ-based digital pathology company.
This partnership uniquely positions InSphero’s in the space of the translational application of machine learning tools in combination with human pre-clinical models to decipher complex pathological phenotypes for the identification of effective therapies.
A key challenge of these current unmet clinical needs is the prediction of the drug efficacy of complex fibrotic phenotypes in clinical stages. The partnership of InSphero and PharmaNest merges InSphero’s advanced 3D spheroid models with PharmaNest’s high resolution, single-fiber digital pathology, enabling AI-assisted precise phenotyping of fibrosis severity and remodeling for liver fibrosis in metabolic-dysfunction associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and other fibrotic 3D in-vitro models.
“This partnership agreement is the materialization of our previous collaborative efforts into a needed integration of AI applications for liver spheroids resulting in a benefit for the end-user,” said Dr. Francisco Verdeguer, VP Liver Disease. “Liver spheroids recapitulate excessive and self-sustaining fibrogenesis in a miniaturized, human-relevant system. Integration of the PharmaNest single-fiber digital pathology platform enables quantitative, phenotype-resolved assessment of fibrosis in spheroids and direct alignment with human biopsy–derived fibrosis signatures, providing a uniquely translatable measure of antifibrotic therapeutic efficacy”, says Mathieu Petitjean, Chief Engineering Officer at PharmaNest.
By combining these technologies and expertise, InSphero now offers unified AI and 3D in-vitro modelling to its customers:
- AI seamless integration of fibrotic quantification in 3D in-vitro models.
- Extensive data depth with novel fibrotyping analysis to predict therapeutic effects in humans.
- Comprehensive end-to-end solution for drug efficacy screening from translational biomarkers to complex phenotypic analysis.
This strategic move positions InSphero to better serve pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and academic customers seeking to replace animal testing with scalable, human-relevant models that deliver robust, predictive data for decision-making.
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