DiscoveRx Announces Launch of New Human Primary Cell-Based Panels for Oncology Research

DiscoveRx Corporation, through its BioSeek® division, today announces the release of an industry-first, primary human cell-based assay platform for oncology research. Consisting of primary human cell-based tumor-host model systems, this new BioMAP® panel enables researchers to easily assess the phenotypic impact of candidate compounds on tumor microenvironment biology to better predict in vivo drug activities and forecast potential clinical outcomes with respect to drug efficacy and safety.
“These oncology-focused BioMAP systems will support predictive and physiologically relevant cancer compound development from early discovery through pre-clinical development stages,” said Ellen Berg, Ph.D., Scientific Director and General Manager of BioSeek. “They capture human tumor-host activities that can be modulated by a number of clinically relevant mono-therapies as well as drug combinations involving small molecule chemotherapeutics and biologics. Such BioMAP models recapitulate complex interactions between tumor cells, stromal and/or vascular tissue and recruited, infiltrating immune cells to the tumor.”

Despite a fair number of cancer drugs gaining approval for clinical use, late-stage compound attrition still remains a major issue in anticancer drug development. A critical need remains for pre-clinical models that can serve as better predictors of success in clinical trials. Scientific evidence is mounting that combination therapies using previously approved oncology drugs can be more efficacious, safe and successful than traditional mono-therapies, making the need for predictive in-vivo models more apparent. By virtue of the fact that the two compounds selected for combination therapy would have been developed independently, determining the appropriate therapeutic dosing for such combinations also continues to be technically challenging. The ability to test drug combinations in predictive models such as BioMAP can support the testing of pre-clinical strategies involving both development compounds and approved drugs.