Carcinotech and CELLINK have announced a collaborative partnership to develop and commercialise protocols for the biofabrication of 3D bioprinted tumor models based on cancer cell lines that improve accuracy and rapidly speed up drug development processes, which the company says will drive down development costs and enable an improved output.

Globally, an estimated 19.3 million cancer cases occurred in 2020 alone, with a fatality rate of almost 10.0 million cancer deaths, with breast (11.7%), lung (11.4%), colorectal (10%) and prostate (7.3%) being the most fatal.

While cancer continues to affect millions, there are still a limited number of effective therapies available, and those that are available, have a high degree of variation from patient to patient.

Edinburgh-headquartered Carcinotech produced 3D bioprinted micro-tumors, as well as 3D models based on cancer cell lines, incorporating CELLINK’s technology for automated workflows that have been iterated on over the last 3 years.

Working with patient-derived biopsies, immune cells and cancer stem cells to develop 3D bioprinted Micro-Tumors, Carcinotech has been providing the pharmaceutical sector with services in assisting researchers to optimise drug testing workflows.

The protocols on the CELLINK’s BIO CELLX system will leverage cell line based 3D models and will greatly accelerate research timelines. The 3D Cancer Cell Line Models have been developed to include the physiological representative ratio of 5 key cell types relevant to each cancer with widely available cell lines.

“We are looking forward to seeing the impact of this partnership on the oncology research community and look forward to the advancements that will be made in cancer research through the use of Carcinotech’s optimised cancer models. Combining Carcinotech’s in depth understanding of cancer, and CELLINK’s BIO CELLX systems precision and reproducibility, we hope to provide a new degree of efficiency to cancer research workflows,” said Cecilia Edebo, CEO of CELLINK.

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As part of this agreement between CELLINK and Carcinotech, the protocols will be made available on CELLINK’s BIO CELLX 3D biodispenser. The BIO CELLX is a biodispensing system that provides customers with the ability to automate 3D cell culture workflows.

“We are excited to continue working with CELLINK, a global leader in 3D bioprinting. Their unique technology as well as high quality bioink, provide revolutionary capabilities to the wider life science and drug discovery market.

“Their extensive knowledge in 3D bioprinting combined with our expertise in oncology and 3D modelling will help fulfil our shared commitment to accelerate oncology drug development pipelines.” said Ishani Malhotra0, CEO and Founder of Carcinotech.