Cellular Disease Models
Cellular Disease Models
Our cellular disease models team collaborates closely with clients to evaluate targets, design flexible workflows, or develop new in vitro disease models for drug screening. Pharmaron possesses strong assay development expertise in key therapeutic areas, including oncology, immuno-oncology, immunology, metabolic diseases, cardiovascular diseases, fibrosis, neurology, and pain.
Employing target and phenotypic screening platforms and pathway-centric methodologies, we deliver solutions ranging from low throughput to our state-of-the-art, fully automated, high-throughput screening capabilities.
Our in vitro disease models, supported by our biomarker and bioinformatics teams, help elucidate disease resistance mechanisms and provide insight into drugs’ modes of action and pharmacodynamics.
Many of our in vitro disease models are primary cell assays performed on freshly isolated tissues from our in vivo pharmacology team, including disease-relevant transgenic animals. Tissues and primary cell assays closely mimic physiological environments, enhancing the predictiveness and translatability of preclinical studies. Drug testing on our cellular disease models provides a profound understanding of how treatment affects the disease.
Capabilities
in vitro Cancer Assays
Pharmaron’s toolbox of in vitro cancer assays is built on our cell bank with more than 2,000 cell lines and encompasses standard 2D assays to complex organoid models.
Proliferation and viability assays: Cell proliferation and viability, 3D spheroid and colony formation assays, long-term culture, PDX-organoids, cancer cell panel screening with up to 1,000 cell lines, drug combination testing
Mechanistic assays: Cell death, autophagy, and apoptosis assays, cell cycle and senescence analysis, DNA damage (rH2Ax, gene pathways), oncogenic-driver research via BaF3 cell lines, drug resistance mechanisms
Functional assays: Co-culture assays, migration/invasion assay; translocation assay, angiogenesis, immuno-oncology assays
Immunology Assays
Pharmaron’s vast experience in immunology assays, including functional cell assays and biomarker analysis, makes studying inflammation, immunologic disorders, and immuno-oncology possible. The following assays are available:
- Immune cell activation/proliferation assays
- Immune cell differentiation and morphology
- Degranulation and inflammation assays
- Phagocytosis assays
- PBMC and whole blood assays
- Co-culture killing assays
- Chemokine-induced cell migration
- Complement assays
- Cytokine release assays
- Assays specific to immune pathways: Toll-like receptor, NOD-like receptors, cGAS-STING, JAK-STAT, IRF, NF-KB, NF-AT, sensors of viral RNA, lectin receptors, inflammasome, stress pathway, TCR pathway, BCR pathway, complement pathway, chemokine pathway
- Assays specific for immune cell subsets: mast cells, basophils, neutrophils, DCs, macrophages, T cells, NK cells, B cells
- Immune checkpoint assays
- Antibody evaluation for binding, internalization, inhibition/activation activity, ADCC, ADCP, CDC
Metabolic Disorder Assays
Our metabolism assays are developed to characterize the metabolism of cells after drug treatment and to screen
drugs against metabolic diseases. We have established assays against hundreds of targets, such as GLP-1 and insulin receptors.
- Glucose metabolism: GSIS (Intact islet/pancreatic beta cell), glucose uptake and reabsorption, glucose-dependent insulin release, lipolysis and lipogenesis
- Lipid metabolism: de novo lipogenesis, FASN, fatty acid synthesis and oxidation, TCA metabolism, lipid accumulation via adipocyte differentiation, cholesterol metabolism and LDL uptake, 3T3-L1 differentiation
- Mitochondria metabolism: Mitochondrial biogenesis, membrane potential, oxygen consumption, oxidative stress
- Protein metabolism: Amino acid uptake, protein synthesis and turnover
- Neurotransmitter metabolism
- Nucleic acid metabolism
Neuroscience Assays
Pharmaron’s dedicated neuroscience assays team works with an extensive range of models, such as primary cell culture, brain slices, brain organoids, neurons, microglia and astrocytes derived from iPCS, healthy donor and patient-derived iPCS, tissue from transgenic animals, and target-overexpressing cell lines.
- A beta aggregation
- High-content imaging
- Real-time imaging
- Neurite morphology and outgrowth
- Chemical and mechanical-induced neurite degeneration
- Neuronal network activity
- Neurotoxicity
- Neuroinflammation
- Electrophysiology via manual and automated patch clamp: ion channel assays, brain circuit plasticity, MEA recording, DRG recording
Cellular Cardiovascular Disease Models
Our experts in cellular cardiovascular disease models work with state-of-the-art instrumentation for electrophysiological studies.
- Electrophysiology via manual and automated patch clamp
- Ion channel assays, primary culture assays
- hERG functional and binding assays
- CiPA panel screening
- iPS-induced cardiomyocytes
- Multiple-electrode MEA array recording of cardiomyocytes
- Panel for early in vitro safety assessment
in vitro Disease Models for Fibrosis
- TGF-beta-induced pulmonary fibrosis.
- TGF-beta-induced hepatic fibrosis
- Fibrosis-related marker test
- Integrin and ECM binding test
- Cell adhesion test
Customizable, fast, and cost-effective cell screening with 1,000+ cancer lines.
Cell panel screening and bioinformatics reveal BRAF inhibitor resistance mechanism.
