Richard Kondo, McLean Collins, and Cathie G. Miller highlighted Episode 3 of the Cutting Edge Conversations series focused on innovations in the area of human biosamples. The event specifically honed in on sourcing human samples for research, including the value and necessity of working with human tissue during drug discovery, as well as some of the distinct challenges researchers face.

Richard Kondo,PhD, AnaBios

During his presentation, Dr. Kondo explained how AnaBios' advanced human tissue-based methods enable a unique approach that integrates data from human ex vivo studies with client preclinical animal data. The company has developed the ability to test the potential efficacy and safety of new drug compounds in human tissues well in advance of clinical trials. This is made possible by their extensive network of partnering U.S. hospitals, the utilization of proprietary tissue preservation methods and lab-based study and assessment of drug effects on the human tissues and isolated cells. From hospital room to laboratory, AnaBios maintains full oversight of the recovery process and utilization of human tissues to guarantee consistency in tissue viability. For client molecular work, AnaBios makes available tissue samples and cells from these organs. Dr. Kondo described how their unique approach to recovering human organs from ethically-consented donors provides a human focused platform for novel target discovery and drug assessment.

McLean Collins, Senior Vice President of Global Accounts at Discovery Life Sciences

McLean Collins discussed how Discovery Life Sciences knows that quality, relevant biospecimens are critical for the generation of accurate data to inform precision oncology programs. In order to select reliable biospecimen cohorts that meet their study's specifications, scientists can benefit from access to genomic biomarker, histopathologic and quality control annotations. These data are crucial to help precision oncology researchers select optimal biospecimens for their unique research needs. McLean shared how board-certified pathologists and genomic biomarker experts annotate thousands of FFPE tissues to streamline cohort selection for precision oncology studies. He discussed how HudsonAlpha Discovery's custom nucleic acid extraction and isolation services yield high quality RNA, even from archival FFPE and how robust NGS services provide a wealth of clinically relevant biomarker data including emerging immuno-oncology biomarkers such as TMB and MSI.

Cathie G. Miller, Senior Director of Product Marketing for Personalized Medicine at BioIVT

BioIVT is a leading global provider of research models and value-added research services for drug discovery and development. They specialize in control and disease-state biospecimens including human and animal tissues, cell products, blood and other biofluids. Their portfolio of clinical specimens directly supports precision medicine research and the effort to improve patient outcomes by coupling comprehensive clinical data with donor samples. Cathie shared how BioIVT's new self-service inventory search can be utilized by researchers to find samples and accelerate drug discovery for personalized medicine. BioIVT's portal allows users to search available inventory, then refine and export results.

View the presentation slides here.