SRI International Announces PDCellX™ Xenograft Tumor Model Services to Accelerate Cancer Drug Research

MENLO PARK, Calif., April 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- SRI International has announced the availability of its PDCellX™ xenograft tumor model services for testing the activity of potential cancer therapeutics. PDCellX models provide clinically relevant information that allows researchers to evaluate the efficacy of cancer drug candidates in new models that go beyond traditional tumor xenograft endpoints.

"For researchers who need to evaluate cancer drug efficacy, PDCellX models offer the closest available alternative to clinical testing," said Lucia Beviglia, Ph.D., director of pharmacology research in SRI Biosciences' Center for Cancer and Metabolism. "We offer researchers models that are highly representative of human cancer. PDCellX allows researchers to understand the mechanisms of drug action and resistance at the cellular level, which is critical before taking a candidate drug to clinical trials."

For years, researchers have used cancer cell lines to model human disease. Even though cell lines are useful, they often have limited predictive value for certain cancers. Recently, cancer researchers have turned to fragments of excised surgical biopsies to generate models that more accurately test experimental cancer therapies. These patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models have limitations, because the fragments are from different parts of a tumor and each fragment may not contain the entire diversity of tumor cell types. SRI Biosciences researchers have advanced PDX technology to create models that are more representative of human tumors. SRI's PDCellX technology uses dissociated tumor cells from biopsies that can be reconstructed to better reflect the heterogeneity and complexity of tumors and their cell subpopulations.

PDCellX models retain primary tumor properties and metastasis behavior. By implanting dissociated cells, the tumor heterogeneity is equally distributed; moreover, the engraftment and tumor growth are better compared to tumor fragments. In addition, using PDCellX models, researchers can study the molecular characteristics at a cellular level and analyze the biological functions of the primary tumor cells, including migration, pro-angiogenic activity, drug resistance, metastatic properties, and the likelihood that drug-treated cells will still reinitiate tumors.

The new PDCellX models join SRI Biosciences' existing cultured cell line-derived xenograft models to give clients and partners a variety of testing options for potential cancer therapies. SRI routinely studies more than 80 different cancer cell lines from 18 different human tumor tissue types, including breast, colon, lung, prostate, and ovarian cell lines, for subcutaneous xenograft studies. SRI also offers prostate, breast, pancreatic, brain, and leukemia/lymphoma orthotopic models for evaluating efficacy of cancer therapies on primary tumor growth and metastatic dissemination, as well as several tumor lines for syngeneic studies.

About SRI Biosciences 

SRI Biosciences carries out basic research, drug discovery, and drug development. SRI has all of the resources necessary to take R&D from initial discoveries to clinical trials. SRI's product pipeline has yielded marketed drugs, therapeutics currently in human testing, and additional programs at earlier stages. SRI Biosciences offers a wide range of contract research organization (CRO) services, helping government and industry clients and partners advance drugs and other biomedical products toward commercialization. SRI is also working to create the next generation of technologies in areas such as diagnostics, drug delivery, medical devices, and systems biology.

About SRI International

Innovations from SRI International have created new industries, billions of dollars of marketplace value, and lasting benefits to society—touching our lives every day. SRI, a nonprofit research and development institute based in Silicon Valley, brings its innovations to the marketplace through technology licensing, new products, and spin-off ventures. Government and business clients come to SRI for pioneering R&D and solutions in computing and communications, chemistry and materials, education, energy, health and pharmaceuticals, national defense, robotics, sensing, and more.

Visit SRI's website and Timeline of Innovation to learn more about SRI.

SOURCE SRI International