Charles River partners with OcellO to expand oncology business

It has been announced that Charles River Laboratories (MA, USA) have partnered with OcellO (Leiden, Netherlands) to develop their oncology discovery business, featuring major additions to the online resource – Tumor Model Compendium. Researchers utilize this resource to identify and locate patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) based on histology and molecular characteristics.

OcellO will apply their 3D cell culture drug screening platform to the human tumor material from Charles River PDX models, enabling the analysis of small molecules and antibody effects on tumor development.

Birgit Girshick, Corporate Senior Vice President, Global Discovery, Charles River commented: “The use of a human tumor graft in a humanized model represents the future of immuno-oncology research.

A model that more closely mirrors human immune systems allows researchers to conduct groundbreaking studies more efficiently and effectively, with the goal of developing more translational therapies. Utilizing the Tumor Model Compendium, oncology researchers can identify the exact tumor model and target for their research, getting them that much closer to that goal.”

Currently, Charles River retains a portfolio of 450 characterized proprietary PDXs, which represents all major tumor histotypes. The updated Compendium will include; whole-exome mutations determined by Next-Generation Sequencing, gene copy number variations determined by Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP Array 6.0 and gene expression determined by Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array.

Leo Price, CEO and OcellO founder concluded: “The extended range of tumor subtypes and high level of annotation of Charles River’s PDX Compendium enables the selection of the optimum tumor models with the most appropriate mutational profile for in vivo studies. The use of the same PDX tumor cells in OcellO’s in vitro 3D culture platform enables pre-screening of tumor models with test compounds in a highly translational high-throughput platform.”

Source: Charles River Laboratories press release: http://ir.criver.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=121668&p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=2273214