Our Services
Over the past 10 years, 3D in vitro & ex vivo assay platforms using scaffolds, extracellular matrices (ECM) and scaffold-/ECM-free formats have been increasingly used to create physiologically relevant models of organs and diseases. Such models have been extensively used as tools for analysis of drug activity response and monitoring potential changes at subcellular levels, to identify downstream targets post drug treatment. The cell response to drug treatment is not just determined by the inherent characteristics of the target cell, but is also influenced and at times controlled by signals derived from other cells and tissue type (such as stroma, fibroblasts, distinct immune cell compartments) either within the tumor microenvironment or the organ microenvironment. This characteristic makes finding effective therapy very difficult if the in vitro model does not recapitulate the in vivo components that mediate drug mechanisms of action
3D Co-cultures
We can offer the opportunity to study the effect of drugs on various cell types as well as their interactions in a 3D microenvironment.
Patient-derived tissue generally contains several cell types, such as cancer cells, stromal cells, endothelial cells and immune infiltrate. Our technology allows the generation of tumoroids which contain tumour cells and stromal cells, as well as various immune cells. This provides a highly relevant platform for your early to late stage drug development and profiling projects.
Customization
We will work with you to develop the assay that you need.
The composition of the multicellular structures can be varied over time, sequentially adding cells at any point during the experiment. By testing drugs on tumoroids consisting of many cell types, the effect of your molecule on all cell types of interest can be examined in a physiologically relevant 3D microenvironment. Our microfluidic ONCO-Chip3D technology facilitates extended periods of culture, offering the ability to create bespoke drug testing regimens for a large number of 3D cancer models simultaneously.
Single And Combination Compound Screening
We can monitor the efficacy of your compounds tested in isolation or in combination in a cost-effective manner on arrays of tumoroids.
We can assess the efficacy of your compound in vitro mimicking clinical protocols, giving you confidence to progress to in vivo studies. Combinations of several agents have been a hallmark of chemotherapy. ScreenIn3D is able to provide multiple formats for testing combinations of two or more agents.
Chemo-radio Combination Studies
We can monitor the efficacy of your compounds tested in combination with radiotherapy.
We can provide X-ray irradiation to multicellular tumour spheroids, organoids and tumoroids, either alone or in combination with commonly used adjuvant chemotherapy and your compound of interest.
Tissue, Supernatant Retrieval And Characterization
We can retrieve the 3D cancer models after treatment to enable tissue post-processing.
The tumour microenvironment (TME) is a dynamic system. Either over short or long periods of culture, the multicellular 3D cancer model can undergo genetic or phenotypic changes, as well as cell reorganization in space. The ability to retrieve the spheroids/organoids/tumoroids at the end of the assay enables their characterization, with the opportunity to highlight and interrogate specific model response to treatment when using human heterogeneous tissue (e.g. using RT-PCR). Additionally, we can collect supernatant regularly during the assay to examine its composition (e.g. to identify cytokines or presence of metabolites using ELISA assay or mass-spectrometry).
