Repositive’s platform features more than 4,540 cancer models that have been submitted from 14 contract research organizations (CROs). Repositive stated that due to the recent shift toward precision medicine oncology, researchers have looked to pre-clinical cancer models. These models often require specific molecular and genomic profiles which have posed issues of time and complexity.
To address this, Repositive’s new personal shopper offering provides a confidential service to support researchers. A team at Repositive works under a confidentiality agreement to search its platform based on researchers’ search criteria before introducing them to CROs that meet these requirements.
Fiona Nielsen, founder and CEO of Repositive told us that it is, “particularly challenging [for researchers] to compare models from different providers and assess if a model had the right profile for the hypothesis they were looking to test. Our Cancer Models Platform and Personal Shopper Service are changing this.”
She further explained that the platform’s data has been standardized and organized by bioinformaticians to include metadata and molecular characteristics of each specific model.
Preclinical research has seen a drive toward the use of organoids and other cancer models following concerns about animal study designs hindering efficient and effective drug development.
The company is “actively recruiting more CROs onto the platform with the aim of expanding our offering to include additional model types and services, as well as more highly specialized and innovative translational technologies,” according to Nielsen.
In 2017, Repositive launched its patient-derived xenograft (PDX) Consortium in collaboration with AstraZeneca, creating a marketplace for PDX models from CROs worldwide. Since completing the pilot of this consortium, Repositive expanded its Cancer Models Platform to include translational models, including CDX models, organoids, humanized and syngeneic mice, and cancer cell lines.
Repositive is also working to enhance the field of translational oncology by building a pre-competitive community of researchers that will be known as the Translational Oncology Network.