Drug Discovery
standard to mimic tumour microenvironments more closely in vitro. This can potentially reduce the number of animal studies, and their associated costs, if targets are preliminarily screened in a more biologically-relevant human in vitro culture. The approach also helps realise differences and vari- ances seen in cell performance as researchers tran- sition from a 3D in vitro human model into in vivo animal studies. Not only are primary cells in 3D culture pre-
ferred from a cost benefit standpoint to help reduce animal testing costs, this approach also alleviates many of the ethical concerns associated with ani- mal use expressed across many regions of the world. In addition, the ability to use more physio- logically-relevant in vitro 3D tumour models creat- ed with patient-derived primary cells could acceler- ate the discovery and development of the next gen- eration of personalised cancer treatments.
Conclusion Cancer is one of the most highly-funded disease areas; however, the failure rate of cancer drugs remains high. To address this challenge, there has been growing recognition within the pharmaceuti- cal industry that human primary cells and 3D cul- ture methods are likely to offer a promising solu- tion for improving the early phases of cancer drug discovery which have traditionally been based on less effective preclinical models. Implementing more biologically-relevant cancer models in target discovery and validation could help to reduce the risk of drugs failing in the later stages, saving phar- maceutical companies considerable amounts of time and money. Moreover, new 3D technologies are aiming towards a higher-throughput approach for drug screening applications and could be a promising pre-screening in vitro tool and an alter- native to reduce animal models. However, in addi- tion to pharmaceutical companies using better in vitro cancer models, there is a need for consistency in methodologies and reagents used across academia, pharma and biotechs. Method standard- isation would ensure data published, which will ultimately form the basis of subsequent studies, is more accurate and reliable, helping to advance cancer drug discovery.
DDW
Lubna Hussain is Senior Global Product Manager for Lonza’s primary cells and media products, as well as 3D culture systems. She has worked at Lonza since 2012 and has previously held a variety of positions in the life science industry, where she gained knowledge and experience in RNA interfer-
Drug Discovery World Spring 2018
ence, recombinant proteins and gene expression, to name a few. Lubna received her Bachelors from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with a Minor in Chemistry.
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