Tumor Screening Lab Research Group (Experimental Oncology Department at Antwerp University).
The ClinoStar bioreactor enables to generate large size organoids to study drug screening from patient tumor samples.
The Experimental Oncology Department at the University of Antwertp is part of the Center for Oncological Research (CORE). The main goal undert he CORE operates is to advance cancer treatment and to improve patient quality of life through development of more efficient detection methods and new revolutionary therapies.
Prof. Christophe Deben is the Tumor Screening Lab Research group leader. He manages different projects where the main goal is to generate models to better study and understand cancer. The statement behind is to "help the patient, to find out the right drug for the right patient".
Read below for more information
The key point in the projects carried on in the department is to achieve patient-derived organoids for pre-clinical and clinical development.
Organoids are not easy to grow. Therefore, oncology research groups have the need to find out those environment conditions where tumors are happy to grow in order to test in early and later stages drugs.
Workflow for the research:
1. Access to patient samples from different tumor types.
Fresh tissue is collected from tumor biopsies from the Antwertp University hospital (UZA). It is located close to the main department buidling, and samples are transported rapidly and efficiently to use for research purposes.
The tumor fragments are directly incorporated in the ClinoStar. Then, after a specific time period they are fully adapted to the invitro cell culture conditions. Thanks to our bioreactor, organoids can grow in large sizes, which makes it to behavie closer to human diseases conditions.
2. Biobanking and charachterising
Once organoids have arrived to ideal large sizes, they need to live for a long-term time period and expand. Then, they are stored in biobanks. Biobanks standardize the collection and preservation of normal or pathological specimens, as well as related clinical information.
3. Develop high throughout drug screening assays: automated imageing and data analysis
Tumors from biobanking enable the study of disease modeling, new drug development and high-throughput drug screening
High throughput drug screening assays support drug development and clinical decision. From these assays, data is generated and analysed with the new analysis platform, Orbits.
Have a look at the interview with Prof. Christophe Deben
+31 30 6880771
support@isogen-lifescience.com
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