Crown Bioscience enters into collaboration with Xstrahl for radiation biology research

Development of Radiation Models of Cancer Will Enable the Discovery of More Effective Oncology Therapies

Crown Bioscience, Inc., a leading global drug discovery and development service company, today announces that it has entered into a collaboration with Xstrahl Ltd, a leading designer and manufacturer of X-Ray solutions for radiation biology research. As part of the agreement, CrownBio will be implementing the SARRP research platform supplied by Xstrahl, based on state-of-the-art Image Guided Micro-Irradiation (IGMI™) techniques at its PRECOS facility in Nottingham, UK. As a result of the partnership, CrownBio will be at the forefront of providing contract research oncology models that provide an irradiation service based on targeted beam radiation therapy, to more closely mimic the clinical situation for patients in the preclinical setting to help improve potential cancer treatment regimens.

CrownBio is the largest supplier of oncology services, with a global footprint spanning three major continents in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Via its collaboration with Xstrahl, the company is now able to offer its customers computerized tomography (CT) imaging with precise radiation delivery. High resolution imaging enables researchers to pinpoint an exact clinical target and deliver a precise radiation dose to in vivo and in vitro models. The platform provides the ability to perform combination studies in patient derived xenograft (PDX) and cell line derived xenograft (CDX) models as well as in vitro, in addition to irradiated subjects for haematological or more fastidious models.

Jean-Pierre Wery, President of CrownBio comments, “The partnership represents CrownBio’s commitment to providing its pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical customers with specialized techniques and services. Radiation therapy is part of the treatment regimen for the majority of cancer patients worldwide. Therefore providing preclinical models which more closely reflect a patient’s condition should be a potential option for validating the efficacy of novel therapies and potential compounds that make tumor cells more sensitive to radiation therapy (radiosensitizers) for the treatment of cancer. The use of the IGMI technique in conjunction with our commercial models will provide a unique portfolio of models which more closely mimic the treatment regimen in the clinic, but in the preclinical setting.”

CrownBio has unique clinically relevant models, which reflect the patient situation for each aspect of cancer progression, encompassing pre-cancerous lesions, primary tumors and metastasis. Jean-Pierre Wery continues, “We are delighted to partner with Xstrahl in order to further develop unique cutting-edge models that represent patients who have undergone radiation therapy. Conventional chemotherapy has been, for many years, the prevalent type of anti-cancer treatment. However its broad-based mechanisms (e.g. DNA alkylating agents) usually lead to severe systemic side effects and it is becoming increasingly important to consider alternatives to chemotherapy, such as radiation.”

The SARRP platform is designed to close the gap between current clinical techniques and radiation biology/radiotherapy. The platform enables researchers to confidently assess the efficacy and efficiency of current treatment regimes and provide new data to the medical community that can help to shape the future of radiation protocols and concurrent therapies.

Adrian Treverton - COO at Xstrahl Life Sciences said today, “This unique partnership with CrownBio will enable Xstrahl to enhance our understanding of unique models of radiation and apply this knowledge to the wider oncology drug discovery community. We want to transform the way researchers and clinicians conduct radiation research as well as providing the most advanced platforms for validating the efficacy of novel radiation therapies for cancer and research into normal tissue toxicity. Our expertise in targeted radiotherapy provides a perfect complement to CrownBio’s existing imaging services in order to enhance radiation oncology.” 

Preclinical models in radiation oncology are essential tools for cancer research and therapeutics. CrownBio is looking to develop models that can be used to test radiation therapy, including in vitro as well as in vivo orthotopic xenograft models which can ultimately be used to develop more effective cancer therapies.