Biotech Collaboration to Promote Animal-Based Cancer Research

Two American biotechnology companies have signed a collaboration agreement that is intended to promote animal-based cancer research and drug development.

The two companies, Taconic Biosciences (Hudson, NY, USA) and Cellaria Biosciences (Boxford, Massachusetts, USA) possess complementary technical expertise that, when combined, will facilitate and improve the utility of patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) in animal models for oncology and cancer drug research. Cellaria is known for the development of novel methodologies for generating cells from patient tumors and will benefit from Taconic’s portfolio of tissue humanized mouse models.

The initial project to be conducted under the collaboration agreement will focus on the creation of breast cancer cell lines from PDX models for which Taconic holds licenses from the University of Utah (Salt Lake City, USA).

“Our scientific collaboration with Cellaria is a prime example of Taconic continually pushing the boundaries of technology to improve the utility of humanized animal models in biomedical research,” said Todd Little, president of corporate development at Taconic Biosciences. “By collaborating with a company that has achieved great success in generating cell lines from patient-derived tumors, Taconic will be able to deliver more predictive tissue humanized models that will improve and accelerate oncology research and drug discovery.”

“Taconic and Cellaria have a shared goal to create relevant tools for cancer,” said David Deems, CEO of Cellaria Biosciences. “The new models created through this collaboration have enormous potential to better define target patient populations and evaluate the efficacy of new therapies.”

Related Links:
Taconic Biosciences
Cellaria Biosciences
University of Utah