Cancer Research
Cancer research studies aim to develop safe and effective methods to prevent, detect, diagnose, treat, and, ultimately, cure the collections of diseases generally known as cancer. The more progress made in understanding these diseases, the more we can diminish the tremendous human and economic tolls of cancer to transform and saves lives.
Research has helped accumulate extensive knowledge about the biological processes involved in cancer onset, growth, and spread in the body. Those discoveries have led to more effective and targeted treatments and prevention strategies.
Breakthroughs in prevention, early detection, screening, diagnosis, and treatment are often the result of research and discoveries made by scientists in a wide array of disciplines over decades and even generations.
Research Areas
Cancer Research UK defines 4 fields of cancer research:
Discovery
Research which will transform fundamental understanding
of cancer.
Translational
Innovation in therapeutic discovery and development.
Clinical
Supporting a broad portfolio of clinical studies which maximise patient impact.
Prevention and Population
Behavioural research, epidemiology, intervention studies, public health and research into cancer prevention.
Alpha Laboratories offers a number of tools
used in cancer research
Phos-tag™ Tool Kit
The Phos-tag™ range of products are intended to aid investigation of protein phosphorylation.
Deregulation in the phosphorylation-dephosphorylation cascade of various kinases has been associated with cancers. Drugs targeting phosphorylation pathways are a current focus for cancer therapy with inhibitors of MEK, PI3K and ERK signalling pathways undergoing clinical trial 1.
Phos-tag products, most commonly acrylamide gels, have previously been used in investigation of phosphorylation status within cancer research projects 2-5.
References
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1) Sandra Marmiroli et al. Phosphorylation, Signaling, and Cancer: Targets and Targeting,
BioMed Research International, vol. 2015, Article ID 601543, 3 pages, 2015. -
2) Chen et al. Determining the Phosphorylation Status of Hippo Components YAP and TAZ Using Phos-tag.
Methods Mol Biol. 2019;1893:281-287. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-8910-2_21. -
3) Yasunori Sugiyama et al., Expression and phosphorylation state analysis of intracellular protein kinases using Multi-PK antibody and Phos-tag SDS-PAGE, MethodsX, Volume 2, 2015, Pages 469-474
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4) Carles Barcelo et al. Phosphorylation at Ser-181 of Oncogenic KRAS Is Required for Tumor Growth.
DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-13-1750 Published February 2014 -
5) Morgenstern et al., Phosphorylation of T107 by CamKIId Regulates the Detoxification Efficiency and Proteomic Integrity of Glyoxalase 1. 2020, Cell Reports 32, 108160, September 22, 2020
Literature
Cellmatrix Solutions
Liquid Collagen for Cell Culture Applications
There are several publications using Cellmatrix collagen in cancer research, including its use in gel droplet–embedded culture–drug sensitivity testing. 1-5
Collagen is one of the most commonly used extracellular matrix proteins, ideal for growing first generation endothelial, skin, nerve and hepatic cells.
The Cellmatrix range of collagen solutions can be used for a variety of tissue culture techniques, from coating culture surfaces to creating collagen gel interfaces or embedded cultures.
References
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1) H Kobayashi et al. Examination of in vitro chemosensitivity test using collagen gel droplet culture method with colorimetric endpoint quantification.
Jpn J Cancer Res .2001 Feb;92(2):203-10 -
2) Mikami et al. Induction of the differentiation of cultured endometrial carcinoma cells by type I collagen: Relevance of sulfolipids
Oncol Lett. 2010 Jan; 1(1): 113–117. -
3) Higashiyama M, et al. Differences in chemosensitivity between primary and paired metastatic lung cancer tissues: In vitro analysis based on the collagen gel droplet embedded culture drug test (CD-DST). J Thorac Dis 2012;4(1):40-47. doi: 10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2011.05.02
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4) Kawaguchi et al. Successful Analysis of Anticancer Drug Sensitivity by CD-DST Using Pleural Fluid and Ascites from Patients with Advanced Ovarian Cancer: Case Reports
ANTICANCER RESEARCH 25: 3547-3552 (2005) -
5) Yoshida, S., Asanoma, K., Yagi, H. et al. Fibronectin mediates activation of stromal fibroblasts by SPARC in endometrial cancer cells. BMC Cancer 21, 156 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-021-07875-9
Literature
PrimeSurface® Culture Ware
The PrimeSurface® range of culture ware was developed by the S-Bio division of the Sumitomo Bakelite Company to provide plastic culture vessels with low cell adhesion properties.
Designed for spheroid/organoid culture it features in cancer research studies and is most commonly used in drug screening
PrimeSurface products provide stable culture surfaces with a ultra-hydrophilic polymer coating containing a 'high density -OH group' which prevents elution of chemicals from the plate which can influence cell response and also promotes spontaneous spheroid formation within stem cell cultures.
PrimeSurface 96 Well plates are available with different well shapes to suit different applications.
Choose from U-, Conical or V- shaped wells. The well shape can influence spheroid body formation, cells with weaker aggregation properties such as the breast cancer cells MDA-MB-468 benefit from the V-shaped wells but other cultures will favour different well shapes for example mouse ES cell have been differentiated into cardiomyocytes using U-shaped wells (Yasuda et al, 2011*).
Oncology Antibodies
We also offer a range of antibodies for components of the plasminogen activation system which correlate with tumour malignancy.