Preclinical evaluation of antimetastatic drug candidates using a next-generation chicken embryo model
December 3, 2020
11 am to 12 pm EST

Webinar Description:

Metastasis is a complex disease with multiple stages and diverse signaling pathways. Despite intensive research to identify therapeutic targets and develop new antimetastatic drugs, it still remains the leading cause of cancer patient death.

Several notable efforts have been made to develop antimetastatic drugs but have all failed (MMP inhibitors, anti-NF-κB, biphosphonates, etc). This is mainly because metastasis is a dynamic process, which is complex to model. Actual preclinical models are very often built for anti-proliferative drug development and do not recapitulate all steps in the metastatic process.

Moreover, the biology of metastatic cells differs completely from primary tumor cells. It is therefore necessary to rethink existing preclinical models and determine new endpoints that properly evaluate their antimetastatic properties in designing new drugs to prevent or delay metastatis.

The mouse is the most commonly used preclinical model for evaluating newly developped antimetastatic compounds. However, its efficiency is limited by factors such as the presence/absence of an immune system, the site of injection or the presence/absence of a primary tumor. The chicken embryo model presents the advantage of recapitulating all steps of spontaneous metastasis in 9 days including the formation of a primary tumor, intravasation, extravasation from the vasculature and establishment at distant sites.

During the webinar Dr Chloé Prunier will discuss:

  • Benefits of early in vivo efficacy evaluation to optimize the probability of success for antimetastatic drug candidates
  • Chicken embryo model and its characteristics
  • Benefits of the chicken embryo model for filling the gaps between in vitro studies and mouse models
  • Comparative analysis of the chicken embryo model vs the mouse model
  • Metastatic processes in the chicken embryo model
  • Case studies

Learning Objectives:

  • Benefits of setting up an early in vivo efficacy evaluation to optimize probability of succes for antimetastatic drug candidates
  • Chicken embryo in vivo model for early efficacy and toxicity evaluation of antimetastatic drug candidates
  • Understanding the pros and cons of the chicken embryo model vs mouse model in antimetastatic drug development

Speaker:

Chloé Prunier, PhD
Research scientist
Inovotion

Chloé is a research scientist in Inovotion’s R&D department. She leads client projects and initiates new R&D projects to constantly improve Inovotion’s services. Prior to joining Inovotion, Chloé worked as a postdoc at Leiden University Medical Center (Netherlands), led by Peter ten Dijke where she studied breast cancer dormancy using in vivo models and intravital microscopy. She obtained her PhD in developmental biology and oncology at University Grenoble Alpes. Throughout her career, Chloé has acquired expertise in preclinical models applied to cancer research and in vivo imaging to study cancer progression.


Cost: No Cost!