Labcyte and SEngine Precision Medicine Collaborate to Offer Functional Drug Screening for Oncology
Labcyte Inc. and SEngine Precision Medicine announced the companies are collaborating to fulfill the promise of personalized medicine by employing Labcyte’s advanced acoustic liquid handling solutions with SEngine’s unique functional drug testing approach with the mission to match cancer patients to the most effective and least toxic therapies available.
SEngine employs functional genomics and robotic testing of drugs in live patient organoids using the company’s CLIA-certified P.A.R.I.S. assay. From a single sample taken from a patient’s tumor, SEngine scientists can discover which drugs or combinations of drugs are most effective in killing or disabling that individual’s cancer, and which therapies will most likely not work in a specific case – saving patients time, money, and unnecessary side effects. The test employs more than 100 drugs, carefully selected to include the largest and most up-to-date collection of targeted therapies, and is applicable to all major solid tumor types.
Labcyte’s Echo® Liquid Handlers use the gentle energy of sound waves to transfer liquids with high accuracy and billionth of a liter precision. The ability to miniaturize and automate assays saves scientists time and money, and enables new types of assays that were previously inconceivable or too difficult with traditional methods. Acoustic liquid handling technology is contactless, eliminating the use of pipettes and reducing the volumes required for compounds and samples. SEngine is also using Labcyte’s Access™ Laboratory Workstation to further automate its lab and increase throughput while preserving accuracy.
“Labcyte’s advanced technology will help us further our mission to provide patients with treatment choices selected from targeted, and therefore less-toxic drugs and help oncologists determine the best personalized strategy or clinical trial for each individual patient,” said Dr. Carla Grandori, Chief Executive Officer of SEngine. “The data generated through this approach will also inform future treatments, guide drug development, and ultimately teach computers how to cure cancer.”
Mark Fischer-Colbrie, Chief Executive Officer of Labcyte commented, “Functional drug screening is the way of the future, and we are excited to work with pioneers like SEngine to move out of the days where often toxic and one-size-fits-all treatments are used, and replace them with more highly targeted and tolerable individualized therapies. This approach has been shown to have an impact, with both benefits to patients and even in discovering new indications for existing drugs.”
Image Source: SEngine Precision Medicine