Cellesce, has announced a collaboration with Repositive, which has developed the Cancer Models product, a searchable web-based platform, that connects cancer researchers to the models and services they need to drive research.

The new partnership will expand the number of Repositive’s partners on Cancer Models to 12. Repositive’s integrated web-based solution, enables researchers to find cancer models derived from human tumours with many from commercial sources now searchable in one place.

Researchers worldwide can use Repositive’s platform to compare standardised molecular features, create collections and share with their team. Cellesce will keep control of data access, learn which models are most popular, and connect with new and existing customers.

Cellesce uses its proprietary bioprocessing technology to consistently expand tumour-derived organoid lines that originate from patient tissue. These organoids accurately recapitulate disease-causing genetic mutations and are produced in sufficient consistency, quality and quantity to support drug applications for compound screening.

This collaboration will provide novel and more complete research solutions to support commercial and academic partners as they undertake basic cancer research and pursue drug discovery programmes using tumour-derived organoids.

Dr Mark Treherne, Chief Executive of Cellesce, commented: “By partnering to provide an integrated drug discovery solution, Cellesce and Repositive are now in a position to provide a more comprehensive package to academic and commercial researchers working on cancer to find the most relevant organoids for their needs. This strategic partnership further underscores the value of providing organoids at scale and highlights the impact our models are having on the global research community.”

“By working with Cellesce, we’re making it easier for oncology researchers and data providers to collaborate and speed up the development of new treatments. Organoids expanded by Cellesce will further enable and expand our web-based solution.” said Dr Fiona Nielsen, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Repositive.

This new collaboration was announced at EORTC-NCI-AACR 2018, which took place at the Dublin Convention Centre on Wednesday 14th November during which Repositive hosted its Pre-Clinical Oncology Showcase. Dr Mark Treherne, Cellesce CEO was one of the presenters.

Cellesce and Cardiff University have won an Innovate UK competition. The award will fund a collaborative project that aims to improve research into scaling up organoids to enable the discovery of new breast cancer therapies. This project will build on the expertise the two teams have already established with colorectal cancer organoids.

Organoids are three-dimensional (3D) stem cell cultures that can self-organise into ‘mini-organs.’ They facilitate the study of tumour pathology to enable cancer drug discovery. Organoids are closer to in vivo tumours than more conventional 2D cell line cultures and can provide more relevant pharmacological responses to drugs and antibodies. By using organoids in drug discovery screening assays, scientists can identify active compounds for further progression earlier in the drug discovery process and weed out less attractive compounds before incurring higher downstream costs.

Professor Trevor Dale, Cardiff University, said: “One of the hurdles of identifying new and effective treatments is the accuracy of cell responses to the compounds you are testing, since cells in a petri dish frequently don’t behave as they would in the body. By growing cells in 3D, we can recreate much of the complexity that is seen in patients’ tumours and therefore, get a better idea of how effective new therapies will be. We use donated tumour tissue, taken from patients in hospital, to grow organoids. By growing tumours from different patients, pharmaceutical companies may be able to match specific new therapies to specific cancer types.”

“Cellesce is already producing patient-derived colorectal organoids on a commercial scale for research use and screening in drug discovery, by using its proprietary organoid expansion bioprocessor,” said Dr Mark Treherne, Cellesce CEO. “90% of early-stage compounds fail to demonstrate relevant clinical efficacy so extending the range of cancer tissues that we can provide at scale will enable more pharmaceutical companies to embrace organoid technology. We believe this will provide our customers with a more robust, relevant and cost-effective model for screening new drug compounds”.

Cellesce, has formally launched and published the supporting data package for its first range of colorectal organoids. Based on three and a half years of bioprocess development research Cellesce has now successfully grown, reliably expanded and characterised a range of 10 novel organoids. Ethically derived from colorectal cancer patients, these organoids open up exciting new opportunities for further oncology research and compound library screening for drug discovery.

Example images of five of our ten colorectal organoid lines. Confocal images using 20X objective of Cell Insight Cx7. Organoids stained for nuclear (blue) and cytoskeletal (red) markers for imaging. Scale 50μm

Colorectal cancer (CRC), is the development of cancer from the large bowel, which accounts for over 9% of all cancers. It is the third most common cancer worldwide and the fourth most common cause of death, especially in the over 60s. More common in developed countries with an ageing population, the high level of incidence and unmet medical need makes colorectal cancer an active area of research, which the successful development of Cellesce’s organoid technology is enabling, especially in drug discovery.

Cancer organoids are derived from tumours that are grown on in a research lab. Cancer cells divide and cluster to grow into miniature clusters that preserve many of the features of the original tumour, including similar three-dimensional morphology. Most importantly, they show drug responses that are similar to that of the tumours from which they are derived. This offers transformational possibilities for medical research and drug discovery. Organoids can become an inexhaustible supply of miniature tumours for pre-clinical research. The unmet medical need in colorectal cancer is for drug testing systems that better predict patient responses to new compounds including antibodies and small molecule therapeutics.

Cellesce’s initial offering of 10 colorectal cancer organoid lines, have each been DNA profiled and quality assured for consistency, viability after freezing and uniform size. Organoids are frozen and stored in cryovials and are shipped worldwide with instructions for their in vitro research use. Tumour-derived organoids are characterised for their pharmacological responses to a standard set of compounds as part of the quality control process.

Cellesce Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Marianne Ellis said: “These colorectal cancer organoids represent the first product made using our successful and novel bioprocessing expansion technology. We are now moving on to develop normal healthy colorectal organoids to provide a valuable resource from non-cancerous controls for the compound screening, as well as for basic gastrointestinal research.