Japan’s Transparent, Molecular Response to launch 3D cell culture system for cancer applications

CHIBA, Japan—Transparent Inc., a provider of 3D cell cultureplate design and applications, and Molecular Response Laboratories (MRL), aprivately held molecular diagnostic services company, announced in late Marchthat they launch Cell-able Oncology, a novel 3D cell culture system forpharmaceutical researchers and medical professionals.

Cell-able Oncology combines Transparent's 3D cell cultureplate design and manufacturing technologies and MRL's proprietary bank of"living" tumor cells and quantitative high-content platforms. The platform willbe marketed under Transparent's "Cell-able Oncology" brand, with key contractresearch support for preclinical and clinical trial applications by MRL.

According to the companies, current strategies fordeveloping new anticancer drugs rely heavily on preclinical testing in cancercell lines and their derived in-vivoxenograft models. A significant limitation to current preclinical testing isthe use of highly passaged cancer cell lines grown on plastic. Improvedpreclinical models are required to advance understanding of the molecularaberrations that underpin cancer.

Cell-able Oncology will allow primary tumor cells to grow in3D cultures that more closely resemble in-vivo-like conditions. Models grown in 3D culture conditions coupled withmolecular characterization provide a stronger correlation to clinical outcomesthan conventional preclinical anticancer drug testing, the companies say.

"Molecular Response's pharmaceutical research services,combined with Cell-able Oncology, will provide researchers the right tools toperform transformative drug discovery with patient-derived primary tumor cellsand focused molecular targets that enable drug sensitivity testing that isstrongly correlated to clinical outcomes," said Transparent CEO Rocky Kato in astatement.