Skip to main content
CartClose Cart
Category

Announcement

Emma Maillard
In Announcement, Cell lines, new tools, Skin

New cell lines murine melanocyte and melanoblast cell lines from Dr. Elena Sviderskaya

St George’s University of London and the Functional Genomics Cell Bank strengthen their partnership with CancerTools.org to accelerate cancer research.

St George’s University of London (SGUL) and CancerTools.org announce new cell lines from Dr. Elena Sviderskaya, which are now readily available via the CancerTools.org website.

CancerTools.org is a global, non-profit cancer-focused biorepository with a 40+ year history of making cancer research tools accessible such as antibodies, cell lines, mouse models and more to cancer researchers worldwide.

Leading cancer biologists at SGUL are supporting CancerTool.org’s mission to accelerate cancer research through research tools. Since December 2017, CancerTools.org has been storing, producing and shipping SGUL’s scientists’ research tools worldwide. To accelerate cancer research and discoveries globally, SGUL and the Functional Genomics Cell Bank are now making 68 murine melanocyte and melanoblast cell lines, invented by Dr. Elena Sviderskaya, available through CancerTools.org.

“As a non-profit, CancerTools.org is dedicated to accelerating cancer breakthroughs, by ensuring cancer scientists have access to the highest quality research tools. We are delighted to be able to make these valuable cell lines available to the global research community and to continue strengthening our relationship with SGUL and the Functional Genomics Cell Bank.”

James Ritchie, Head of External Innovation, CancerTools.org

Dr. Elena Sviderskaya specialises in pigment cell and melanoma research1 and is the Director of the Functional Genomics Cell Bank1 at St George’s, University of London. The Functional Genomics Cell Bank specialises in mouse melanocyte and melanoblast lines carrying a variety of pigmentary mutations, immortal human melanocytes, melanoma cell lines, and stem cells. Many of these lines are now available through Cancer.Tools.org.

“We are delighted that the cell lines held in the Functional Genomics Cell Bank at St George's are now available via CancerTools.org to researchers globally. These lines are important for cancer biologists as non-cancerous controls for the behaviour of melanoma lines, and are also useful in testing the importance of melanogenesis in the progression of melanoma and other skin cancers.”

Dr. Elena Sviderskaya, Director of the Functional Genomics Cell Bank

About the cell lines:

Melanocytes are the cells in mammals that produce pigment (melanin), colouring the hair, skin and irises. They develop from unpigmented precursors, melanoblasts, and are located in the bottom layer of the skin’s epidermis.

The cell lines deposited with CancerTools.org are immortal melanocyte, melanoblast, and neural-crest stem cell lines derived from embryonic mouse skin. These mutant cell lines are used to study the actions of mutated genes, which affect many body systems besides pigment cells. To date, these cell lines have been used in research on topics including cell differentiation, organelle biosynthesis and transport, protein transport, growth control, cancer and many others.

These cell lines therefore not only add value to many areas of pigment cell research including cell biology, developmental biology, molecular biology, genetics, microscopy, physiology, pathophysiology, ageing and cancer, but also to research involving most major organ systems – eyes, ears, and blood, nervous, respiratory, digestive, excretory and skeletal systems, and disorders such as inflammation, thrombosis and allergy among others.

Colour mutations in mice often have an orthologous mutation in humans with associated pathological effects. There is ready interchange between the advances in pigmentary genetics in the mouse and human, which increases the relevance of these cell lines. Thus, a very broad range of body systems, cellular mechanisms and disorders is addressed by this collection of cell lines.

The majority of cell lines with pigmentary mutations were derived from the C57BL/6J strain mice to exclude confounding differences due to strain background. This is a benefit over human cell lines that have many polymorphisms that can affect biological processes independent of known mutations. Several melanocyte (melan-Ink4a-Arf) lines on the C57BL/6J strain background (genotype a/a) were deposited with CancerTools.org. These and some other deposited lines have mutations at the Ink4a-Arf locus that make spontaneous immortalisation routine. Other lines were derived by rare spontaneous immortalisation. Melan-Ink4a-Arf lines are used in applications like the widely used cell line melan-a that immortalised spontaneously. When mutant cell lines were established from mice of other backgrounds, the corresponding wild-type cell lines were established from littermate controls.

Discover more about Dr. Elena Sviderskaya's cell lines:

Access the cell lines

1https://www.sgul.ac.uk/profiles/elena-sviderskaya#overview

About CancerTools.org

CancerTools.org is the first-of-its-kind non-profit, cancer-focused biorepository where researchers can deposit research tools they have developed in their labs including antibodies, cell lines, organoids, small molecules, mouse models, cell culture media and other state-of- the-art technologies. With our in-house production and global coverage, we can produce, store and supply these tools to fellow scientists in their research to deepen our understanding of cancer and drive innovation.

About St George’s University of London

St George’s, University of London is the UK’s only university dedicated to medical, biomedical and allied health education, training and research. Sharing a clinical environment with a major London teaching hospital in southwest London, our innovative approach to education results in well-rounded and highly skilled clinicians, scientists, and health and social care professionals.

An independent member of the University of London, we have a long and illustrious history of training healthcare professionals, dating back more than 270 years. We are well known for our innovative approach to medical education, being the first UK institution to launch a Graduate Entry Medicine Programme – a four-year fast-track medical degree course open to graduates in any discipline. St Georges’ is the number one university in the UK for Graduate Prospects (on track), according to the Complete University Guide 2024 and second for Graduate Prospects in the recently published Times UK University Rankings for 2024.

Our internationally recognised research delivers cutting-edge scientific discovery through four specialist Research Institutes, directly helping patients through our close links to the clinical frontline and London’s diverse community. We were ranked joint 8th in the country for research impact in the last REF (2021) with 36% of St George’s research assessed as ‘world-leading’ and 100% of our impact cases judged as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent.’ Our Institutes focus on biomedical and scientific discovery, advancing the prevention and treatment of disease in the fields of population health, neuroscience, heart disease and infection – four of the greatest challenges to global health in the 21st century.

www.sgul.ac.uk

About the Functional Genomics Cell Bank

The Wellcome Trust has funded a mammalian cell bank (a collection of cell cultures) at St George’s, University of London, in association with the Molecular and Cellular Sciences Section, Neuroscience and Cell Biology Research Institute. The bank specialises in mouse melanocyte and melanoblast lines carrying a variety of pigmentary mutations. Other cell types include immortal human melanocytes, melanoma cell lines, fibroblasts, keratinocytes, mammary epithelial cells, myoblasts, and stem cells.

www.sgul.ac.uk/genomics-cell-bank

Emma Maillard
In Announcement, Cell lines, new tools, Prostate

Dr. Wytske M. van Weerden and CancerTools.org

38 new cell lines from Dr. Wytske M. van Weerden now available through CancerTools.org

Dr. Wytske M. van Weerden is a researcher, who specialises in prostate cancer modelling, with a focus on studying mechanisms of resistance, such as hormone-, chemo- and radio-resistance, with a particular interest in androgen receptor-regulated pathways.1

As part of this research interest, Dr. van Weerden and her team have generated a series of 38 prostate cancer cell lines which are now available through the CancerTools.org collection.

About the cell lines

Prostate cancer is the 2nd most commonly occurring cancer in men and the 4th most common cancer overall. There were more than 1.4 million new cases of prostate cancer in 2020.2 The treatment for prostate cancer focuses on androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) aiming to reduce androgen receptor (AR) activation.3 Although initially effective, in time, resistance develops resulting in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Interestingly, the vast majority of clinical CRPC tumours retain a functional AR that continues to drive tumour progression. However, preclinical research of CRPC still relies heavily on AR negative cell line models.4 The research team of Dr. van Weerden has created a comprehensive series of human-derived CRPC cell lines that reflect the changes in AR characteristics very similar to those observed in clinical CRPC. Discover these new cell lines now available through CancerTools.org:

    • PC346C cell line: This cell line has been created from the androgen-responsive xenograft PC346P, a transurethral resection of a primary prostate tumour. This cell line is androgen-responsive and grows slowly in the steroid-stripped medium. It expresses wildtype AR, secretes PSA and is not stimulated by antiandrogen hydroxyflutamide.5

 

  • PC346C-CRPC panel: The following three cell lines were created by continuously culturing PC346C for over 2 years in various androgen-depleted conditions and show different hormone response properties. The PC346C panel of cell lines is tumorigenic when inoculated subcutaneously in immune-deficient (male) mice.5
  • PC346C-DCC CRPC Cell line: This cell line is unresponsive to both R1881 and hydroxyflutamide and has downregulated AR expression as well as low levels of PSA protein.5
  • PC346C-FLU1 AR overexpressed CRPC Cell line: This cell line grows optimally in steroid-stripped medium or in medium supplemented with hydroxyflutamide, being inhibited by physiologic concentrations of androgens. AR expression is overexpressed in this cell line, which is not a result of AR gene amplification. AR expression is localised in the nucleus. This cell line shows increased AR expression compared to other in vitro 5 The cell secrete PSA.
  • PC346C-FLU2 AR (T877A) mutated CRPC Cell line: This cell line grows optimally in medium supplemented with both R1881 or hydroxyflutamide as it harbours the well-known AR T877A mutation (LNCaP). AR expression in this cell line is localised in the nucleus.5 The cell lines secrete PSA.
    • PC346mAR (T877A) CRPC Cell line: This cell line was established in vitro from the androgen unresponsive PC346I xenograft and shows the AR T877A mutation. This cell line is stimulated by both R1881 and hydroxyflutamide. AR expression in this cell line is localised in the nucleus.5 The cells secrete PSA.
    • 28x PC346C CRPC cell lines: A series of 28 CRPC sublines derived from culturing the source cell line PC346C long-term and continuously under different androgen depleted conditions.4 (see below).

Continue Reading

Emma Maillard
In Announcement, Cell lines, new tools, Ovarian

Six new cell lines from Prof. Michelle Lockley

Prof. Michelle Lockley from Queen Mary University of London, deposits 6 new cell lines with CancerTools.org

Epithelial ovarian cancer is a heterogeneous disease with five different pathological subtypes, the most common being High Grade Serous Cancer (HGSC). Standard treatment to date for epithelial ovarian cancer has been a combination of surgery and platinum-based chemotherapy. However, approximately 80% of patients relapse and respond less well to successive platinum-containing chemotherapy regimens. Platinum-resistance is defined clinically when relapse occurs within 6months of the most recent platinum treatment. Maintenance treatment with PARP inhibitors dramatically improves progression-free survival in platinum-sensitive disease, but new treatments, including PARP inhibitors, have failed to improve survival in platinum-resistant HGSC.

Prof. Michelle Lockley is a Clinician Scientist based at Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London. As a consultant medical oncologist specialising in the systemic treatment of gynaecological cancers, she has particular expertise in ovarian cancer.

Pre-clinical research relies on cell-based disease models, but creating permanent cell lines from human HGSC has proven to be challenging and the extent to which these lines reflect characteristic features of relapsed, human HGSC is largely unknown. As part of her research into epithelial ovarian cancer, Michelle and her team used the OVCAR4, Cov318 and Ovsaho cell lines to generate a unique panel of platinum-resistant, in vitro and in vivo, High-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) models, that recapitulate the genetic and clinical features of human epithelial ovarian cancer.

To make these cell lines available globally to the wider ovarian cancer research scientific community via CancerTools.org, Michelle deposited the following cell lines:

  1. IVRO1 Cell Line
  2. OvsahoCarbo Cell Line
  3. OV4Cis Cell Line
  4. OV4Carbo Cell Line
  5. CovCis Cell Line
  6. OvsahoCis Cell Line

These cell lines are platinum-resistant HGSC models which:

  • share multiple transcriptomic features with relapsed human HGSC
  • have evolved diverse in vivo phenotypes reflecting the human disease
  • share genetic and transcriptional profiles with platinum-resistant human HGSC
  • accurately reproduce the phenotypic diversity seen in patients.

In addition, the infiltrative and metastatic intraperitoneal phenotype produced by Ov4Carbo cells is analogous to the most usual pattern of recurrent, human HGSC.

Discover more about these cell lines:

Emma Maillard
In Announcement, Media, new tools

Introducing Glucose-free PlasmaxTM

To further support cell growth in natural and a physiologically relevant environment, we at CancerTools.org are introducing a glucose-free version of Plasmax to complement the original Plasmax formulation.

This defined medium is unique in offering a glucose-free formulation that opens up possibilities for tailored experimental conditions in cancer and cell biology research. It can support a applications including glucose starvation experiments, tumour microenvironment and cancer metabolism studies, metabolic tracing of glucose incorporating stable isotopes (e.g. 13C), etc. which could shed light on critical pathways and mechanisms underlying cancer cell metabolism and glucose utilisation.

While this glucose-free PlasmaxTM eliminates glucose from its formulation, it still preserves the original optimised composition of PlasmaxTM derived from over 80 components. These constituents encompass amino acids and derivatives, inorganic salts, trace elements, and vitamins, with more than 50 components present at levels mirroring those found in human plasma. Hence, the formulation ensures cultured cells closely mimic physiological and metabolic profiles of their in vivo counterparts.

Proven to provide tailored experimental conditions in a physiologically relevant environment, glucose-free PlasmaxTM can support research projects aimed at advancing cancer research and associated metabolic studies.

Access Plasmax glucose free

About CancerTools.org / Cancer Research UK

CancerTools.org, the research tools arm of CRUK, is a non-profit, global community of cancer researchers, academic institutes and societies, with a shared mission to accelerate cancer research. In this collaborative, researchers contribute research tools and share knowledge to deepen our understanding of cancer, and drive innovation within cancer research.
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world’s leading charity dedicated to beating cancer through research. It invests more than £400 million annually into cancer research through funding schemes, conferences, initiatives, resources, and a UK-wide network of research infrastructure across basic, translational, clinical and population research.
Emma Maillard
In Blog, Deposit your tools, new tools

Democratising research tools via a non-profit platform for cancer research

Introduction

The reagents you use in your daily experiments are critical to pave the way for future discoveries and help to advance our understanding of this intricate disease. With frequent advancements in the field and science continuing to break boundaries, tools and technologies are quickly becoming nuance and innovative. Those in the oncology space are united through an alignment of similar missions.  Built by and for cancer researchers, CancerTools.org is grounded in this underlying union. Empowered by a greater mission to accelerate cancer research, CancerTools.org is the first-of-its-kind, non-profit, cancer-focused biorepository, featuring a portfolio of tangible research materials including antibodies, cell lines, organoids, cell culture media, mouse models, small molecules, and other latest state-of-the-art technologies. Intended to both serve and inspire the community, CancerTools.org “is more than just physical materials, it’s about stimulating dialogue and championing collaborations with your peers” – Robert Bondaryk, Global Head of CancerTools.org.

A busy year

Since launching in April last year, we have fulfilled certain achievements that facilitate this mission for the research community. Partnering with societies and academic institutes alike, plays an integral role in democratising research tools globally and is central to what we do here at CancerTools.org.

The start of the year saw an exciting partnership with the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) – a professional membership organisation made up of over 10,000 cancer researchers.

Our collaboration with the EACR invited their scientific community to contribute tools developed in their laboratories, together with accessing our portfolio for their various cancer research needs.

Continuing our first year with collaboration and new technologies at the forefront was important, and our partnership with Fukushima Medical University (FMU) in Japan did just that. FMU, with the support of their technology transfer partner, Summit Pharmaceuticals International, generously contributed a realm of diverse and unique cancer patient-derived organoids (F-PDOs) and human gene-overexpressing cell lines.

”This is an exciting opportunity for FMU to demonstrate to their scientists how their research efforts can expand beyond the confines of their own lab, helping to accelerate cancer research and the associated discoveries worldwide.

Motoki Takagi, FMU

Cancer scientists globally will be able to use these organoids in various application areas including, disease modeling, anti-cancer agents’ discovery and development, immuno-oncology assays, compounds safety, and toxicity testing.

Our unique antibody portfolio constitutes one of our most established offerings. Fulfilling requests for a highly sought-after antibody can be demanding in terms of time, reagents, and financial resources.

An instance of an innovative antibody contributed to CancerTool.org is the Anti-Omomyc- an antibody to study Myc biology, invented by Prof. Laura Soucek, co-Director at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology. It is now available to the wider scientific community through CancerTools.org, accelerating research on Myc worldwide.

By internalising the production and distribution of the anti-Omomyc antibody in our labs, we can manage demand promptly. These very collaborations have allowed us to add a significant number of tangible research tools to the portfolio this year! We can’t wait to continue to expand our portfolio with advanced tools and technologies that grow in tandem with ground-breaking science.  

From New Orleans Louisiana to Florence Italy, Austin Texas and Bilbao Spain, we have had the pleasure of meeting and sharing CancerTools.org with scientists at research conferences worldwide. These meetings are not only a forum to engage with you but present themselves as an avenue to continue to stay updated with nuance learnings and advanced happenings in the field, ensuring we maintain a portfolio that is well aligned with the current demands of science. We can’t wait to keep meeting more of you this year at future conferences – check out where we will be this year here.   

Conclusion

Internally at CancerTools.org, we have expanded our team,  helping to diversify our skillsets when it comes to the understanding of science and what it takes to bring those ground-breaking tools and technologies in front of the wider scientific community. This ensures we can support our mission as best we can, and in conjunction with upcoming partnerships on the horizon,  leaves us looking forward to a fruitful 2023.

We look forward to continue working with the brightest minds of the scientific community and supporting ongoing cancer research globally.

”CancerTools.org will continue to build an end-user-centric program that will allow scientists to deposit the advanced tools and technologies they have been working on in an undemanding way. This will strengthen our position across verticals to further power cancer research by our fellow scientists.

Pawanbir Singh, Head of Product and Marketing at CancerTools.org

Deposit your research tools:

Find out more

Emma Maillard
In Announcement, Cell lines, new tools

Fukushima Medical University deposits human gene-overexpressing cell lines to CancerTools.org

Fukushima Medical University aims to accelerate cancer research by contributing their human gene-overexpressing cell lines to the CancerTools.org initiative

The Fukushima Medical University (FMU) and Summit Pharmaceuticals (SPI) are existing partners of CancerTools.org who have previously contributed a unique and diverse organoid portfolio to the initiative (read the announcement here).  Further strengthening this collaboration, Fukushima Medical University (FMU) and Summit Pharmaceuticals International (SPI)  have now generously made their human gene-overexpressing cell lines available to the global cancer research tools community by  contributing them to the initiative.

The cell lines are non–tumorigenic immortalised breast epithelial cells (MCF 10A) whose proliferation depends on epidermal growth factor and which stably express mutant cancer-related genes. The cell lines represent experimental models that can be used in cell-based assays for evaluating the efficacy of anticancer agents, including molecule-targeted drugs and mutant-selective inhibitors, drug discovery, high throughput screenings and functional analyses of the mutated genes [1-2].

Progress in cancer research has always been dependent on the generosity and willingness of scientists to make their rare and unique materials accessible to their colleagues. Scientists globally will now be able to access these cell lines from FMU for use them as assay systems for anticancer agents’ evaluation and drug discovery.

As part of this partnership, CancerTools.org will work with FMU and their technology transfer partner Summit Pharmaceuticals International (SPI) to bring the production of these cell lines in-house and manage quality control and global distribution.

About CancerTools.org / Cancer Research UK

CancerTools.org, the research tools arm of CRUK, is a non-profit, global community of cancer researchers, academic institutes and societies, with a shared mission to accelerate cancer research. In this collaborative, researchers contribute research tools and share knowledge to deepen our understanding of cancer, and drive innovation within cancer research.
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world’s leading charity dedicated to beating cancer through research. It invests more than £400 million annually into cancer research through funding schemes, conferences, initiatives, resources, and a UK-wide network of research infrastructure across basic, translational, clinical and population research.

About Fukushima Medical University

Fukushima Medical University was established for the purpose of educating and fostering medical education of people who contribute to the health, medical care and welfare of people in Fukushima Prefecture. At the same time, as a research institute, it has an important mission of asking the world about the results of constant research.
After the Great East Japan Earthquake and the nuclear power plant accident in 2011, the government quickly supported the resurgence of Fukushima from the perspective of medical care and health, and it has accelerated its activities in cooperation with medical institutions and research institutions around the world. As part of its activities, FMU established the Industry for Medical-Industrial Translational Research in 2012. By bridging the medical community and industry, FMU provides multifaceted support for the development of new drugs, diagnostic reagents and test reagents for cancer-based diseases.
Through these efforts, FMU is contributing to the creation, clustering and employment of pharmaceutical-related industries in Fukushima Prefecture, as well as contributing to the improvement of the quality of cancer treatment and diagnosis within Fukushima Prefecture to maintain and improve the health of the prefectural population.
For more information, visit https://www.fmu.ac.jp/home/trc/en/

About Summit Pharmaceuticals International

SPI is a company that provides support for everything from research and development to manufacturing and sales of pharmaceuticals. They offer cutting edge technology and products from all over the world to the domestic pharmaceutical industry in Japan.
For more information, visit https://www.summitpharma.co.jp/
Emma Maillard
In Announcement, new partnership, Organoids

Fukushima Medical University, Summit Pharmaceuticals International and CancerTools.org

Fukushima Medical University aims to accelerate cancer research by contributing patient derived organoids to CancerTools.org

London – UK, Fukushima and Tokyo – Japan: CancerTools.org, the research tools arm of Cancer Research UK (CRUK), and the Fukushima Medical University (FMU) and Summit Pharmaceuticals International (SPI) today announced a new partnership to progress their shared mission of accelerating cancer research. Through this partnership, FMU has made their patient derived organoids (F-PDOs) available to the global cancer research tools community.

Progress in cancer research has always been dependent on the generosity and willingness of scientists to make their rare and unique materials accessible to their colleagues. Scientists globally will now be able to access these latest experimental models from FMU for use in disease modelling, drug development, toxicology screening and other related applications.

As part of this partnership, CancerTools.org will work with FMU and their technology transfer partner Summit Pharmaceuticals International (SPI) to bring the production of these organoids in-house and manage quality control and global distribution. These are the first primary tumour tissue – derived organoids to be part of the existing tools portfolio within CancerTools.org.

F-PDOs are well-characterized experimental models derived from patient explants with 15 different types of cancer. Expansion and differentiation of these tissues/cells produces functional “mini-organs”. Preserving similar genetic profile and morphology with source tumour tissue, F-PDOs represent a physiological and patient-specific path to assess safety and efficacy of drugs in addition to disease modelling. Their physiological nature mimics human biology, which allows them to accurately predict patient response to treatment in comparison to traditional systems.

“Our collaboration with CancerTools.org will allow us to achieve our goal of making these incredible technologies accessible to researchers in their pursuit of organoid based research. This is an exciting opportunity for FMU to demonstrate to their scientists how their research efforts can expand beyond the confines of their own lab helping to accelerate cancer research and the associated discoveries worldwide”

Motoki Takagi, Ph.D., of FMU

“At CancerTools.org we are on a mission to accelerate cancer research. Partnering with FMU and SPI allows us to demonstrate to their research community the value of the tools they are developing in their labs. On our end, organoids as experimental models are a complementary addition to the portfolio which will expand the offering and include tools that will benefit in vitro disease modelling, drug discovery and development together with safety and toxicity studies.”

Robert Bondaryk, Global Head, Research Tools, at CRUK

“This is the beginning of an exciting partnership and we look forward to working with CancerTools.org to enable the scientists from FMU effortlessly make a long-standing impact in oncology research by contributing tools to this unique and first of its kind collaborative in this field.”

Katsuya Okuyama, President & CEO of SPI

About CancerTools.org / Cancer Research UK

CancerTools.org, the research tools arm of CRUK, is a non-profit, global community of cancer researchers, academic institutes and societies, with a shared mission to accelerate cancer research. In this collaborative, researchers contribute research tools and share knowledge to deepen our understanding of cancer, and drive innovation within cancer research.
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world’s leading charity dedicated to beating cancer through research. It invests more than £400 million annually into cancer research through funding schemes, conferences, initiatives, resources, and a UK-wide network of research infrastructure across basic, translational, clinical and population research.

About Fukushima Medical University

Fukushima Medical University was established for the purpose of educating and fostering medical education of people who contribute to the health, medical care and welfare of people in Fukushima Prefecture. At the same time, as a research institute, it has an important mission of asking the world about the results of constant research.
After the Great East Japan Earthquake and the nuclear power plant accident in 2011, the government quickly supported the resurgence of Fukushima from the perspective of medical care and health, and it has accelerated its activities in cooperation with medical institutions and research institutions around the world. As part of its activities, FMU established the Industry for Medical-Industrial Translational Research in 2012. By bridging the medical community and industry, FMU provides multifaceted support for the development of new drugs, diagnostic reagents and test reagents for cancer-based diseases.
Through these efforts, FMU is contributing to the creation, clustering and employment of pharmaceutical-related industries in Fukushima Prefecture, as well as contributing to the improvement of the quality of cancer treatment and diagnosis within Fukushima Prefecture to maintain and improve the health of the prefectural population.
For more information, visit https://www.fmu.ac.jp/home/trc/en/

About Summit Pharmaceuticals International

SPI is a company that provides support for everything from research and development to manufacturing and sales of pharmaceuticals. They offer cutting edge technology and products from all over the world to the domestic pharmaceutical industry in Japan.
For more information, visit https://www.summitpharma.co.jp/
Emma Maillard
In Announcement, new partnership

Cancer Research UK and CancerTools.org

Cancer Research UK launches CancerTools.org, a not-for-profit, global research tool collaborative

London, UK: Cancer Research UK (CRUK), the world’s largest charitable funder of cancer research, has unveiled a new initiative – CancerTools.org, as its global research tools arm.

CancerTools.org aims to be the premier global non-profit research tools collaborative with a primary focus on supporting cancer research. It is a first of its kind initiative in this space where scientists can contribute research tools developed in their lab, thereby enhancing the impact of their research, supporting fellow scientists in academia and industry.

Research tools include physical, tangible materials such as antibodies, cell lines, organoids, experimental models, etc. that are created in labs around the world, to help researchers materialise the ways in which we understand cancer to ultimately provide patients with the best possible outcomes. Such tools are physically scattered across labs around the world and not easily accessible, so CancerTools.org has been developed to support cancer researchers in accessing and contributing a diverse range of cancer research tools.

“I’m delighted that with the launch of CancerTools.org, we are extending our avenues of support to cancer researchers to further accelerate cancer research breakthroughs through research tools”

Tony Hickson, Chief Business Officer, CRUK

Cancer Research UK has an international footprint and works in partnership with others to advance cancer research and benefits for patients everywhere.

“We’re calling on research institutions and funders around the world to work with CancerTools.org to ensure that cutting edge technologies are shared effectively and efficiently. What’s more, proceeds from the distribution of these tools will be ploughed back into research, helping to further accelerate.”

Iain Foulkes, Executive Director, Research & Innovation CRUK

This new initiative builds on the Ximbio platform created by CRUK 7 year’s ago and aims to create a multi-institution, worldwide collaborative. To date scientists from over 175 institutes have contributed thousands of research tools and benefitted from the 40+ years of knowledge, capability and experience the team has in managing, maintaining, and distributing research tools at a global scale. Through this and various other partnerships, CancerTools.org aims to emphasise its role as the leading non-profit global research tools collaborative in accelerating cancer research.

“Partnering with leading societies, institutes and researchers through a centralised programme - CancerTools.org, will enable cancer researchers globally to collaborate, share knowledge and contribute/acquire research tools, allowing us all to progress our shared Mission. We are creating a direct-to-consumer platform where scientists can contribute their tools easier than ever, enabling them to get on with their research knowing their tools are readily accessible the world over.”

Robert Bondaryk, Global Head, Research Tools

About CancerTools.org

CancerTools.org, the research tools arm of CRUK, is a non-profit, global community of cancer researchers, academic institutes and societies, with a shared mission to accelerate cancer research. In this collaborative, researchers contribute research tools and share knowledge to deepen our understanding of cancer, and drive innovation within cancer research.

CancerTools.org is actively seeking cancer research institutes, universities, societies and membership bodies to join the collaborative and enhance the benefits they provide their researchers and members whilst progressing our shared Mission to accelerate cancer research worldwide.

About CRUK

Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world’s leading charity dedicated to beating cancer through research. It invests more than £400 million annually into cancer research through funding schemes, conferences, initiatives, resources, and a UK-wide network of research infrastructure across basic, translational, clinical and population research.

Emma Maillard
In Announcement, new partnership

The EACR and CancerTools.org

The EACR and CancerTools.org sign a strategic partnership to accelerate cancer research and drive innovation

London, UK: CancerTools.org, the research tools arm of Cancer Research UK (CRUK), today announced a new partnership with the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR), with a shared mission to accelerate cancer research discoveries. The EACR is the first professional membership organisation to join the global cancer research tools collaborative led by CancerTools.org and CRUK.

The partnership with the EACR is designed to facilitate the success of this collaborative by reaching out to their membership of more than 10,000 cancer researchers to contribute research tools developed in their laboratories, so that other scientists globally can quickly benefit from them in their work. Progress in cancer research has always been dependent on the generosity and willingness of scientists to make their rare and unique materials available to their colleagues to confirm new results in the peer-review process and prevent ‘reinventing the wheel’ to recreate existing resources. CancerTools.org is the first non-profit programme to unite the entire global cancer research community in this important Mission.

As part of this partnership, CancerTools.org will develop a co-marketing collaboration plan with the EACR to benefit its membership to contribute and further develop the existing compendium of research tools. At the same time, the members will be able to access thousands of unique and innovative tools that already have been contributed by researchers from over 175 university partners on six continents at the www.cancertools.org website.

“By partnering with CancerTools.org, we will create new opportunities for our members by promoting the concept of contributing research tools to advance cancer research. This is an exciting opportunity to combine the forces of Cancer Research UK-led CancerTools.org and the EACR to expand the portfolio of research tools and make them quickly and easily accessible to cancer scientists worldwide”

Jane Smith, CEO of the EACR

“Partnering with the prestigious pan-European organization the EACR is a major milestone for CancerTools.org. Together we can work towards our shared mission of accelerating cancer research and drive innovation within this space. As a collaborative, we can reach out to the membership of the EACR and provide them with the only non-profit platform to effortlessly contribute their tools and make an impact in oncology research.”

Robert Bondaryk, Global Head, Research Tools, at CRUK

CancerTools.org offers cancer scientists a resource to contribute their research tools including antibodies, cell lines, organoids, experimental models, etc. and foster collaboration. Through this and various other partnerships, CancerTools.org aims to further reinforce its role as the leading non-profit global research tools collaborative in accelerating cancer research.

About CancerTools.org

CancerTools.org, the research tools arm of CRUK, is a non-profit, global community of cancer researchers, academic institutes and societies, with a shared mission to accelerate cancer research discoveries. In this collaborative, researchers contribute research tools and share knowledge to deepen our understanding of cancer, and drive innovation within cancer research.

About the EACR

The European Association for Cancer Research is a global community of cancer researchers with more than 10,000 members in 100+ countries. Membership is open to anyone working in or studying cancer research and members work across the full spectrum of the field, from basic through to translational and clinical research. The EACR offers collaboration, funding and networking opportunities and organises a full calendar of cancer research conferences.

About CRUK

Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world’s leading charity dedicated to beating cancer through research. It invests more than £400 million annually into cancer research through funding schemes, conferences, initiatives, resources, and a UK-wide network of research infrastructure across basic, translational, clinical and population research.
Emma Maillard
In Announcement

Nature article: CancerTools.org launch

https://ctnosalientud.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/Nature_Cancertools.org_article_2022.pdf

Tool enquiry

Please ensure you use your organisation email address rather than personal where possible, as this helps us locate your organisation in our system faster.

CancerTools.org uses the contact information provided to respond to you about our research tools and service. For more information please review our privacy policy.