Laboratory-Based Drug Screening for Personalized Therapy

Classifying tumors by organ, such as breast or brain, ignores the genetic, biologic, and patient-related factors that make cancer cases unique. Cancer therapy is therefore moving from a one-size-fits-all paradigm to one of greater personalization. Using an in-house established platform, based on an assembly of benchtop instruments, researchers in the Remke Lab at the University of Dusseldorf Medical School have developed a system that will help guide oncologists toward the right treatments, at the right time, for the right patients.

Based on quantitative, high-throughput screening, this approach will help uncover optimal treatment choices from libraries of approved and late development-stage anticancer drugs. This highly sensitive, cell-based screening platform allows low-volume, multiple-concentration assays to support informed decision-making. The ultimate goal of this research is to enable truly personalized treatment regimens for life-threatening cancers.