Among other tumor types, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) stands alone as one of the most deadliest and clinically challenging malignancies. PDACs are notoriously aggressive, prone to rapid conversion to metastatic phenotype, with remarkable desmoplastic features, but also difficult to monitor and diagnose at the early stages. On the path to better understanding of the disease ethiology and dynamics, molecular features and the diagnostic/therapeutic options for PDAC, the availability of robust preclinical workflows enabling early-stage drug evaluation for prospective PDAC therapeutics presents itself as an invaluable option. Recognizing this value, as well as the unmet need of a dedicated facility to support the preclinical aspects of anti-PDAC drug development, CAPR Program committed to adopting the established KPC model of pancreatic cancer with an objecvtive of optimizing the model for translational research and early stage drug eveluation. Despite a significant body of published scientific evidences and advances related to the KPC model, CAPR will further explore the biologic features of carcinogenesis in this GEM model system, e.g. via analysis of metabolomic changes driven by disease progression, or an impact, if any, of cancerous alterations in pancreatic tissues on composition and functioning of gastro-intestinal microbiota.
