CDAS - Oncology Programs
Quick Links: | Screening & Profiling | Functional | In Vivo Efficacy | Drug Combination Studies |
Caliper Discovery Alliances & Services (CDAS) has established a unique, fully integrated industry platform of Oncology Contract Research Services. We have successfully managed the integration of transforming technologies and highly relevant in vitro and in vivo biology models with conventional, well established approaches to support each of your anticancer drug discovery and development initiatives. Our multidisciplinary team of oncology research scientists will assist you from target identification up to patient selection for clinical trials with the development of the study plan that best fits your research. Our contract research programs are designed for both small and large molecules and are available to you as Fee for service, Custom integrated drug discovery programs and Alliances agreements. Caliper is your partner of choice for routine, high quality data vitro/vivo studies and for complete biology support that your personalized medicine, patient stratification, biomarker discovery/analysis or companion diagnostic research initiatives require.
Biochemical Screening and Profiling
Our High Throughput Screening capabilities HTS and chemical libraries allow for fast hit identification and orthogonal screen confirmation using target assays optimized in a 96 or 384-well plates.
CDAS target profiling panels assess drug target selectivity for lead optimization programs while preserving the chemistry cycle for NCEs or optimized drug synthesis.
Target class programs:
• KinaseScreen™
• PDEScreen™
• Epigenetics (HDAC, Sirtiuns, Deubiquitination, HMT, etc.)
• Proteases (MMPs, Caspases)
Functional Studies Top
Determine drug activity and selectivity in functional assays for your hit confirmation, lead candidate characterization, drug mechanism of actions and biomarker analysis research.
Signaling pathway identification
Quickly identify drug activated or inhibited pathways using antibody arrays
• Human RTK: EGFR, FGFR, Insulin-Receptor, VEGFR, PDGF-R
• Human MAPK: Erk, Jnk, p38, P70, etc.
• Human Phospho-Kinase: Stat, p53, mTOR, Hsp27, B-Catenin, Src, etc.
• Angiogenesis: MMP8, MMP9, etc.
• Apoptosis: Bcl-2, Bcl-x, Bad, Caspase 3, etc.
Protein Marker quantification
Multiplex quantitative Luminex based assays to accurately determine expression levels of cellular and secreted protein biomarkers. Please contact us to learn more about our programs
CancerScreen™ Selectivity
CancerScreen is our internal panel of about 200 human cancer cell lines. You can use our standard, preset panels of cancer cell lines or design the panel that is most relevant to your research. We will assist you with the selection of cell lines by tissue of origin or for the presence of specific gene mutations responsible for cancer induction or imparting drug resistance.
Cell cycle studies
Custom flow cytometry based programs to analyse drug effect on cell cycle progress, induction of apoptosis and more.
Please contact us to learn more about our programs
In Vivo Drug Efficacy Top
Caliper’s oncology models can be used to assess anti-cancer therapies over the course of treatment in vivo. Non-invasive, bioluminescent imaging of tumor growth and metastasis allows longitudinal evaluation of tumor development before, during and after treatment, offering an excellent preclinical strategy to assess tumor response and recurrence.
CDAS has established Spontaneous, Syngeneic and Xenogeneic oncology animal models allowing for specific drug efficacy studies. All our studies are highly customized and study protocols are adjusted or developed to meet each of our client study requirements:
• Wide choice of Caliper Bioware bioluminescent cell lines
• Client’s bioluminescent cell lines can easily be used in contract studies
• Custom creation of recombinant bioluminescent cell lines
• Tumor mass burden and ex vivo analysis are also available
Spontaneous models
The spontaneous pancreatic OncoMouse tumor model developed by CDAS, namely EL1-luc/EL1-SV40 T-antigen transgenic offers a non-invasive approach for monitoring pancreatic tumor development and provides a relevant biological picture of cancer progression. OncoMouse Pancreatic model
Syngeneic models
Studies are performed in C57BL6 and BALBc immunocompetent animals using B16F10 and 4T1 cell lines.
Primary research applications are in cancer vaccine development and basic research.
Xenogeneic model
Studies are performed in NIH-IIInu/bg (nude/beige) mutant immunocompromized animals with deficiencies in both adaptive and innate immune systems.
CDAS offers a wide range of efficacy models that include:
Subcutaneous models
Main application: Rapid screening of lead compound in vivo activity
Primary readouts: Tumor volume, bioluminescent signal analysis and animal survival
Intravenous tumor models
Main application: Drug efficacy assessment against primary tumor
Assessment of anti-metastatic potential of the drug candidate
Primary readouts: Number & localization of tumor metastasis, bioluminescent signal analysis & animal survival
Orthotopic tumor models
Main application: Drug efficacy assessment against both primary tumor and metastasis
Cells are grafted according to the tissue origin
Primary readouts: Tumor volume, number & localization of tumor metastasis, bioluminescent signal analysis & animal survival
Additional readouts can be provided as part of your drug efficacy study and include tumor PK, Histopathology, IHC, vascularization, protein profiling, gene and microRNA expression.
SynScreen™ Drug Combination Studies Top
CDAS offers drug combination studies to help identify synergistic responses of drug combinations and eliminate antagonistic mixtures of drugs. These studies can be performed in Caliper’s anticancer cell proliferation panel, cellular cytokine/chemokine release assays or in vivo efficacy models.
Drug combination studies are increasingly valuable to preclinical pharmaceutical research. The simultaneous use of a variety of drugs is common today for the treatment of bacterial infections, HIV, hypertension and cancer. Drug combination testing is subsequently a growing trend in the oncology therapeutic area (see articles below). If a combination is synergistic or additive, lower doses can be used to achieve the same or better efficacy with lower toxicity.
"Sanofi-Aventis and Merck KGaA are teaming up to test new cancer drugs in combination, joining a trend among drugmakers to combine different cancer therapies in early-stage clinical studies."
Click here to view article.
"Genentech’s Old Antibody Shows New Life, as Part of Combo Therapy Vs. Breast Cancer."
Click here to view article.
Drug combination studies using cancer cell lines provide a direct link from in vitro screening and profiling to in vivo animal models. The exact same cell lines used in the in vitro drug combination testing can be used to create in vivo tumor models for assessing in vivo efficacy using the IVIS imaging platform.
