CurieCoreTech In vivo preclinical experiments

The Laboratory of Preclinical Investigation has recognised and solid expertise in establishing and using patient-derived preclinical models of cancer, PDX and organoids, with a bank of several hundred models of different types of cancer, characterised at the molecular level. 

Patient-derived xenografts (PDX) of breast cancer, obtained by transplanting tumour samples into immunodeficient mice, are the most effective preclinical models for studying human cancer biology and evaluating new cancer treatments. PDXs maintain the phenotypic and molecular characteristics of patient tumours and faithfully reproduce inter- and intra-tumour heterogeneity. The tumour phenotype is reproduced in PDXs and concerns tumour morphology, mutation and gene and protein expression profiles, as well as epigenetic profiles. For these reasons, these models have high predictive value for response to clinical treatments and are clinically relevant research tools for evaluating the efficacy of new treatments and for identifying resistance mechanisms and predictive biomarkers. PDX models can also be used to analyse the metastatic process and residual cancer cells that survive chemotherapy and cause tumour recurrence.

The Laboratory of Preclinical Investigation is also actively involved in establishing tumour organoids from patient tumours/biopsies or from PDXs, mainly for breast, ovarian and lung cancers and sarcomas. These organoids can be used for large-scale pharmacological testing (drug screening).

The platform collaborates with academic and industrial partners to establish new PDX and organoid models and to test new drugs.

Platform expertise

1. Development of new PDX and organoid models from tumours or tumour biopsies

2. Molecular and phenotypic characterisation of PDX and organoids

3. Preclinical in vivo and in vitro pharmacological experiments, including study design, toxicity, efficacy, PK/PD experiments, tissue collections and statistical analyses

4. Discovery of predictive biomarkers using a large panel of PDXs

Technologies and associated platforms

1. NGS and RNAseq technologies (mass and single cell): NGS platform

2. Affymetrix and CGH,

3. RT-PCR,

4. Histological and immunohistochemical analyses

5. Pharmacology,

6. Bioinformatic analyses

Contact

All requests and proposals are open for discussion and optimization in order to reach requested objectives and raised issues:

• Elisabetta Marangoni, PhD, Head of the Laboratory of preclinical investigation