In vitro models for studying cancer

According to the CDC, cancer is the number two cause of death in the United States, with nearly 10% of American adults having been diagnosed with cancer. While efforts in early detection and treatment have reduced cancer-associated morbidity and mortality, efforts to further improve survival rates, particularly in subsets of cancers that are either difficult to detect or treat are ongoing. To aid in the development of more efficient, targeted therapeutics researchers are increasingly turning to cell culture models to evaluate new therapeutic approaches. Particularly with the advancement of 3D cell culture approaches to improve the predictive capacity of in vitro models, the translatability of in vitro results is ever more promising. At Visikol, we offer several off-the-shelf 3D cell culture models for the evaluation of therapeutic efficacy, featuring well-established cell lines recognized by the National Cancer Institute for their disease-recapitulating phenotypes. We also offer custom oncology models to meet the specific cost, throughput, and validation requirements of different drug evaluation campaigns.

How a “model agnostic” approach can fit your oncology drug evaluation needs

At Visikol, we do not believe in a “one size fits all” approach to cell culture models. Instead, in order to ensure the most appropriate oncology model for evaluating therapeutic efficacy is implemented, we work closely with our Clients to understand the disease mechanism of action being targeted and endpoints needed. This enables several cell culture model parameters to be tuned to ensure all validation criteria are met while minimizing the cost to the Client. For example, simple cytotoxicity or apoptosis assays may be well served by simple 2D cultures of an established cell line. Other projects may stipulate the use of 3D models to evaluate therapeutic antibody penetration depth, yet may still be able to leverage the same well-established cell lines. Still yet, other research questions may require more complex model development from patient-derived tumor cells.

Cell sourcing in Visikol oncology models

At Visikol, we believe that the quality of a cell source can drive the success of a model’s implementation in a number of in vitro assays. For this reason, we work with ATCC and ECACC or directly with cell line depositors to ensure that cell lines meet all validation criteria of the project. For primary cell acquisition, Visikol leverages our long-standing relationships with primary cell and tissue banks to procure high-quality cells and can even acquire matched sets of PBMCs or other cell subtypes for the evaluation of immunoncology pathways.