Caliper Life Sciences Forms Alliance with Horizon Discovery

Caliper Life Sciences, Inc. has announced a partnership with Horizon Discovery Ltd. (Cambridge, UK) that expands Caliper Discovery Alliances and Services' (CDAS) oncology cell line and screening capabilities for testing single drugs and combination therapies.

Through this alliance, CDAS now offers genetically-defined, and isogenic human cancer cell lines that allow researchers to better identify and characterize personalized drugs targeted at a specific subset of patients.

Isogenic cell-line pairs, where one cell line contains a genetic alteration or mutation of interest and the other contains the normal gene, represent cell-based models that accurately portray specific human diseases in the context of their matched normal genetic backgrounds.

The inclusion of isogenic cell-line pairs in the discovery process enables scientists to better understand the mechanism of action of lead compounds, directly identify patient-relevant compounds from large compound libraries, re-profile existing drugs for new therapeutic indications, assess the efficacy of drug combinations, and identify potential side effects earlier in the discovery process.

"The alliance with Horizon Discovery adds significant value to existing CDAS offerings and illustrates Caliper's commitment to providing accurate in vitro and in vivo models for oncology research," said David Manyak, Executive Vice President of Drug Discovery Services, Caliper Life Sciences.

"The addition of Horizon's isogenic cell lines to our existing oncology cell proliferation panel, and the ability to correlate results from these isogenic cell lines to efficacy in specific patient populations, further solidifies Caliper's in vitro-in vivo-human (IIH) bridge. Access to these tools will enable researchers to enhance the success rate and reduce the cost of discovering targeted monotherapy or combination therapies that better treat disease with fewer adverse events," he added.