Santa Clara, CA (4th February, 2015) – Crown Bioscience, Inc., a leading global drug discovery and development service company with its R&D centers across the globe has announced that a new partnership agreement has been reached with the National Resource Center for Mutant Mice (NRCMM) and its commercial branch Nanjing Biotech Innovation Corporation (NBIC), in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China. The newly expanded strategic partnership will focus on the development of new immune-oncology experimental cancer models, along with other models, including diabetes and inflammation diseases, to advance immune-oncology translational research and the treatment of cancers and other diseases.
THE EXPANDED COLLABORATION WILL FOCUS ON DEVELOPING IMMUNO-ONCOLOGY MOUSE MODELS AND OTHER DISEASE-SPECIFIC EXPERIMENTAL MODELS SUPPORTING TRANSLATIONAL MEDICAL RESEARCH
Immune-oncology therapy has recently become an area of intense cancer pharmaceutical research, particularly with the recent regulatory approval of PD-1 antibody for the treatment of cancer. However, there are many scientific/medical questions remaining to be answered, including why only subsets of patients respond to the treatments and what combination strategies can significantly enhance the current clinical benefits. Relevant experimental models can help to answer these questions. However, there are few such useful cancer models, with full immuno-competency, that can be used for assessing immunotherapy. In particular, many of the new generation immunotherapy drugs are biologics with species-specificity, which thus render traditional murine models inadequate.
Crown Bioscience is the premier service provider of translational oncology and metabolic diseases research platforms, providing many unique disease models. It has one of the largest and most advanced translational oncology platforms featuring fully annotated collections of proprietary patient derived xenograft (PDX, HuPrime®) models (>1,300) and numerous primary mouse tumor models (MuPrime®). For more information of Crown’s collection of tumor models, visit the website. NRCMM is a leading research organization specializing in genetically engineered mouse models (GEMM), with vast resources, including a large collection of GEMMs, many of which mimic human cancers. Both parties have complimentary expertise and experience in disease models (oncology/diabetes, etc.) and GEMMs. Both organizations announced a research collaboration during the first half of 2014, and have now decided to further expand this partnership and focus on the development of immune-oncology experimental models. The immediate focus of the newly expanded partnership will be to build and validate novel experimental immune-oncology models for cancer immunotherapy research, by leveraging the proprietary technologies of both institutions. It is expected to significantly enhance the research capabilities of both organizations in immune-oncology and will thus benefit the global research community fighting cancer.
After the signing of the agreement, Dr. Jean-Pierre Wery, Crown’s President, commented: “Crown plays a leading role in providing cutting-edge translational platforms and cost effective drug development solutions for almost all the top pharmaceutical companies worldwide. Crown is also determined to play a key role in helping to develop immune-oncology therapies and is very happy to expand the partnership with NRCMM to offer the world new experimental solutions to immune-oncology problems. This collaboration will further strengthen Crown’s leading position as the oncology translational medicine partner for drug discovery organizations worldwide.”
Dr. Jay Liu, Deputy Director of NRCMM and CEO of NBIC, also commented: “As the leading research institute focusing on genetically engineered mice in China, NRCMM takes pride in its capability of creating innovative mouse models for biomedical community and facilitating the development of new therapeutics. Working together with a world leading translational oncology service provider, such as Crown, the combined expertise of Crown in oncology and our GEMM can certainly offer great GEMM-based oncology platforms to our partners in China and around the world. We are certainly excited about this opportunity.”
*ENDS*
For further press information please contact: Celine Goodier – The Scott Partnership, 1 Whiteside, Station Road, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, CW4 8AA, United Kingdom. Tel: + 44 1477 539 539 Fax: +44 1477 539 540 E-mail:crown@scottpr.com
About Crown Bioscience Inc.
Founded in 2006, Crown Bioscience is a premier drug discovery and development service company providing cutting-edge translational platforms and cost effective drug discovery solutions for its biotech and pharmaceutical partners in dedicated therapeutic areas: Oncology and Metabolic Disease. Our proprietary HuPrime®, HuKemia®, HuBase™, HuMark™, HuTrial™ and HuSignature™ platforms enable unique lead optimization and translational strategies to deliver superior clinical candidates. Headquartered in Santa Clara California, Crown Bioscience has operations in China (Beijing and Jiangsu Taicang), United Kingdom (Crown Bioscience UK Ltd. in Nottingham) and the USA (NC) with business offices in Boston, Princeton, RTP, Phoenix, Milan and Shanghai. For more information, please visit http://www.crownbio.com.
About NRCMM
Model Animal Research Center of Nanjing University is located in the High-Tech Development Zone of Nanjing covering an area of about 66,700 square meters. It was established in 2002 as a key project within the framework of the Tenth Five-year Plan of China for Scientific Breakthrough, with an initial investment of 50 million yuan. The center is equipped with a state-of-art animal facility, also functioning as the National Resource Center for Mutant Mice. The center also houses the Ministry of Education (MOE) Key Laboratory of Model Animal for Disease Study. Approved and initiated in 2008, the key laboratory passed its start-up inspection by MOE in May of the ensuing year, following the completion of the first-phase construction in research laboratories, administration offices, a power center and a mouse facility that can accommodate more than 30,000 SPF-level mouse cages. As a research base also capable of mutant mice generation and analysis, the center also boasts a transgenic core and a phenotypic core. The former operates with four sets of micro-injection systems and a high-end stem cell manipulation module; the latter is equipped with a laser scanning confocal microscope, a multi-functional animal monitoring system, a high resolution ultrasound animal imaging system, an in vivo optical imaging system, and a full set of conventional molecular biology equipment. The total value of equipment occupying these two cores is estimated to be worth more than 40 million yuan.
