Cancer

 

Cancer is a term that actually represents a diverse set of diseases that are predominantly characterized by uncontrolled cell division and cell growth. According to the world heath organization approximately 7.6M people die of cancer related diseases each year and although the medical community has made significant advances in the identification and treatment of certain cancers – the overall rate of cancer mortality is still unacceptably high. With the completion of the human genome project and the continued progress in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms and underlying etiology of cancer – there is now much hope that the development of specific targeted therapeutics will substantially reduce the cancer mortality rate.

Kinase Inhibitors

As scientists continue to unravel the mechanisms underlining various cancers, they are finding that one key mechanism is related to the abnormal activation or mutation of kinases—an important class of signal-transduction proteins that modulate many cellular functions, including cell differentiation, growth, metabolism, and apoptosis. Kinase inhibitor drugs have now been shown to be an important class of new targeted therapeutics with the clinical success of several kinase inhibitors including Gleevec, Sutent, and Sprycell.

At Caliper our scientist and engineers have been working to help researchers accelerate the rate and development of new kinase inhibitors and other target specific compounds by applying the latest advances in automation, microfluidics, and molecular imaging to identification and rapid development of such targeted therapeutics. 

Our “best in class” automated systems are used in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide to accelerate the identification of new inhibitor molecules and to provide standardization to the compound screening process. Our microfluidic based EZ Reader and EZ ReaderII platforms have become the new gold standard for the characterization of kinases and kinase inhibitors – providing a technology platform to carry out real time biochemical analysis and even generate data on a kinase inhibitors’ mechanism of action. To rapidly determine if a particular kinase inhibitor is specific for a disease related kinase – Caliper has developed ProfilerPro plate technology which enables researches to simultaneously profile a compound against 100 different kinases in a simple easy to use automated format. The ability to track tumor growth, progression and metastasis in animal models is a critical part of the drug development process and Caliper’s IVIS imaging technology has been shown to provide more accurate and clinically relevant data on the in vivo effects of kinase inhibitors on tumor growth.  The IVIS molecular imaging technology has now become a standard tool in the preclinical assessment of the in vivo efficacy of kinase inhibitors and other cancer inhibiting compounds.

Caliper’s technology portfolio can also be used to accelerate the discovery of targeted anti-cancer therapeutics that may function though other molecular mechanisms such as inhibition of the action of phosphatases, proteases, GPCRs, ion channels and others. Our in vitro and in vivo services outsourcing capabilities within our Discovery Alliances & Services group leverage these same technology platforms and more to accelerate compound identification, safety evaluation and pre-clinical testing in a service to rapidly move new lead candidates into the clinic.

As our understanding of the molecular basis of cancer advances  – Caliper will continue to innovate new products and services to provide the most advanced technologies to turn  basic discoveries into new clinical relevant medicines.