Improved tumor cell models are paramount to overcome current shortcomings of pre-clinical research and drug discovery
The team from the Advanced Cell Models Laboratory in the Animal Cell Technology Unit, based at Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica (IBET) and Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier (ITQB) has been invested on the development of novel advanced tumor cell models with the ability to recapitulate certain features of tumor microenvironment, namely their heterogeneity and complex cellular composition. It has been demonstrated by several authors that tumor microenvironment plays a major role on tumor progression and drug response. Therefore, the incorporation of these features on the design of novel tumor cell models is essential to improve the predictive value of drug efficacy of these models.
If on one hand the implementation of more advanced tumor cell models to recapitulate certain tumor stages or events seems rather logic, on the other hand this will only be truly relevant and translational if these models are amenable for industrial platforms and high-throughput systems.
The team led by Catarina Brito has been collaborating with several industrial partners towards the implementation of these advanced cell models in industrial settings. This has been the particular focus of Vítor Espírito Santo, in combined efforts with the pharmaceutical company AbbVie based in Chicago (USA).
The impact of this strategy in pre-clinical research and in the reduction of drug attrition rates in clinical trials is expected to be significant. This work describes the more recent developments, the key factors to have in account and new directions in this field of research.
Original Article
Drug screening in 3D in vitro tumor models: overcoming current pitfalls of efficacy read-outs
Vítor E. Santo, Sofia P. Rebelo, Marta F. Estrada, Paula M. Alves, Erwin Boghaert, Catarina Brito
First published: 14 December 2016
DOI: 10.1002/biot.201600505
About the Authors
Vítor Espírito Santo is currently a Senior Scientist at Animal Cell Technology Unit from Instituto Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica (iBET, Portugal) and ITQB-NOVA (Portugal). He obtained his MS.C. in Biomedical Engineering and his Ph.D. in Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells, both at University of Minho (Portugal). In 2013, he joined iBET (Portugal) as a Post-Doc Researcher. His research interests target a translational medicine approach, focusing on the engineering of advanced disease models (particularly cancer models) to mimic physiological events. His interests also include the use of biomaterials and nanomedicine tools and the design of stem cell-based therapies for regenerative medicine.
Catarina Brito is the head of the Advanced Cell Models Laboratory, within the Animal Cell Technology Unit of iBET and ITQB-NOVA (Portugal), since 2014. Her research is focused on development of advanced cell models to study deregulation of cellular microenvironment in disease progression and drug response. Her main research interests are Cancer and Central Nervous System diseases. She holds a Biochemistry degree and obtained her PhD in Biochemistry and Cell Biology with the New University of Lisbon. She joined iBET (Portugal) in 2007, first as a postdoc working in human Stem Cell bioprocessing, and later as a Senior Project Manager of academic and industrial collaborations, developing preclinical cell models and bioassays.