ATHYMIC ANIMAL AND PRECLINICAL THERAPEUTICS SHARED RESOURCE PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Athymic Animal and Preclinical Therapeutics Shared Resource (Athymic SR) is an essential asset to Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (Case CCC) members' research, illustrated by the breadth of scientific program involvement and reflected in the number of investigators who use this SR. Last year alone, 55 investigators, 80% of whom were Case CCC members, accounting for 86% of total usage, from 6 out of the Center?s 7 Programs used the SR. The mission of the Athymic SR is to provide support, technical expertise and services to Case CCC investigators using immunosuppressed mouse models in their research, in a depth and extent that could not be supported by individual laboratories. The Athymic SR includes two main sites: one at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), housed in both the Biomedical Research and Wolstein Research Buildings, and one at Cleveland Clinic (CC) Taussig Cancer Institute (TCI).
The Specific Aims of the Athymic SR are to: 1. Provide all Case CCC members the ability to purchase immunodeficient mice with no delay and at significantly reduced cost vs. those from commercial sources, and the ability to perform human xenograft tumor studies including patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. 2. Provide professional consultation and guidance for selecting the most appropriate animal models to test new anti-tumor therapeutic compounds, and obtain pre-clinical pharmacokinetic / pharmacodynamic data for Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling studies. 3. Provide services utilizing genetically-engineered mouse models (GEMM) that inform about the functional relevance of specific genetic deletions or mutations in tumor evolution or development of drug-resistance. 4. Train principal investigators? laboratory personnel in experimental animal techniques and protocols to facilitate technology transfer to individual laboratories. At last review, the Athymic SR was rated Outstanding to Exceptional. Throughout the current funding cycle (2012-2016), the Athymic SR provided services to 106 registered users, 76 (72%) of whom are Case CCC members, representing 6 out of 7 Case CCC programs. Athymic SR services are provided to investigators in 4 different ways: 1) collaborative mode, in which investigators interact with the SR staff; 2) advanced training format, whereby users conduct their experiments in an independent mode; 3) full service approach, in which the SR staff perform entire experimental procedures; (4) interactive arrangement, in which SR staff provide guidance in developing patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. All Case CCC members have formal access to this jointly managed SR.
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