Profiling of Tumor Tissue Slices Awarded

Profiling of Tumor Tissue Slices Awarded

Novel drug screening tool based on the Bionas® 2500 analyzing system wins silver medal in European business plan contest

The BioCon Valley company Bionas GmbH, a specialist for in vitro profiling the metabolic activity of cells, announced that Prof. Pedro Mestres of the Saarland University (Homburg/Saar, Germany) has been awarded the second prize in the business plan contest 1,2,3 GO for a novel drug sensitivity screening tool based on the Bionas technology.

Tumors react in different ways against anti-cancer drugs. It is therefore important to determine tumor drug sensitivity in order to establish a tumor and patient-specific therapy in the clinic.

Prof. Mestres, who plans to found a company for drug screening services in early 2008, has developed a tissue slicing technology producing microtumors that retain near-original tissue structure and cell activity. These microtumors are then analyzed with the Bionas® 2500 analyzing system for their metabolic activity upon drug treatment.

“With the Bionas 2500 instrument we can analyze the metabolic pattern of the tissue slices in a highly precise way, “says Prof. Pedro Mestres. “This enables us to profile tissue specimens from tumor patients for optimal drug responsiveness”.

The Bionas® 2500 analyzing system gives a complete overview of the physiological state of cells and tissues by analyzing metabolic and morphological parameters over a long period.

About Bionas – www.bionas.de
Bionas GmbH, located in Rostock, Germany, specializes in analyzing systems and services for in vitro profiling the metabolic activity of cells to understand cellular function. Bionas® 2500 analyzing system measures extracellular acidification, oxygen consumption and cell adhesion label-free and noninvasively. It can be applied to various cell types including primary cells and tissues. The readout is performed continuously and can be monitored online. Main applications include drug profiling, lead optimization, pharmacokinetics, early toxicology programs, ADME/Tox, chemosensitivity testing, toxicological testing of chemical substances (REACH) and cell culture monitoring and optimization.

Contact Prof. Dr. med. Pedro Mestres-Ventura
Tel.: +49-6841-1626141
email:

Contact at Bionas GmbH:
Dr. Michael Schulze
Managing Director
Tel.: +49 (0) 381 5196-241
email: