Greenstone Biosciences and Neolaia Bio Announce Strategic Collaboration Using iPSC-Derived Macrophages and Human Gut Organoids to Advance IBD Drug Development

Greenstone Biosciences, a biotechnology company specializing in advanced human disease modeling, New Approach Methods (NAMs), 3D organoids, AI and drug discovery, today announced a strategic collaboration with Neolaia Bio, a biopharmaceutical company targeting the fundamental immune-metabolic drivers of aging biology.

Under the collaboration, Neolaia Bio will provide its proprietary drug candidates and discovery expertise, while Greenstone Biosciences will evaluate these compounds using human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived macrophages and patient-relevant gut organoid models. This integrated platform is designed to recapitulate key inflammatory and epithelial features of IBD, enabling more predictive assessment of therapeutic efficacy and mechanism of action.

“This partnership allows us to test our drug candidates in physiologically relevant human systems that closely reflect IBD pathology,” said Dave Becherer, CSO and Co-founder of Neolaia Bio. “By leveraging iPSC-derived immune cells and gut organoids, we aim to generate human-based data that better predicts clinical outcomes and reduces development risk.”

Greenstone Biosciences’ disease modeling platform combines human-based iPSC-derived macrophages—key drivers of intestinal inflammation—with three-dimensional gut organoids that model epithelial barrier integrity, immune-epithelial crosstalk, and inflammatory signaling pathways relevant to human diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. These human-based disease models enable functional evaluation of drug candidates across multiple disease-relevant endpoints, including inflammatory cytokine production, epithelial damage, and tissue regeneration.

“We are excited to collaborate with Neolaia Bio to support the development of next-generation IBD therapies,” said Joseph C Wu, Professor at Stanford and Co-founder of Greenstone Biosciences. “Our human iPSC-based macrophage and gut organoid systems provide a powerful platform for modeling chronic intestinal inflammation and identifying therapeutic candidates with a higher likelihood of clinical success.”

The collaboration reflects a shared commitment to advancing human-relevant preclinical models to address the significant unmet medical needs of patients with IBD. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.