Champions Oncology announced the signing of a competitive contract through the government's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The contract is in response to Topic 355 – Cell and Animal-Based Models to Advance Cancer Ethnic Health Disparity Research. Champions' direct-to-Phase II proposal, entitled "Metastatic Prostate Cancer Patient Derived Xenograft Modeling; A New Operating Paradigm." The contract is a 2-year, $2 million project. Champions' network of collaborating sites will contribute to this project.
The project will build and study an ethnically diverse cohort of metastatic prostate patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. Fully characterized, ethnically diverse prostate PDX models are under-represented among PDX banks, limiting opportunities for pre-clinical and translational oncology studies. Not only is the incidence of prostate cancer higher in African American men than other ethnic groups, the mortality rates from prostate cancer for African American men are higher. A primary goal of this project is to create new tools to better understand the ethnic health disparity in prostate cancer.
The project will leverage Champions' current quality management strategies for industrial scale PDX development and incorporate novel approaches and techniques to efficiently build and study new prostate PDX models. Champions has partnered with InnoGenomics, a molecular diagnostics technology innovator, to apply their proprietary, high-sensitivity liquid biopsy techniques to PDX models.
"We are very excited that the NCI has chosen Champions for this SBIR award and has recognized Champions' expertise in quality management systems for commercializing the development of these models," said Angela Davies, MD., Chief Medical Officer of Champions Oncology. "This award allows us to dramatically expand our prostate PDX program and demonstrate the benefits of new techniques and approaches that advance the field."
The ethnically diverse prostate PDX models will be fully characterized and annotated. In addition to clinical, molecular and histological characterization of each model, standard-of-care drug testing will be performed. The models and associated data and information will be shared with the NCI to further research in prostate cancers.