Preclinical Immuno-oncology Research
Deserves an Early Advantage
Work with ClearLight to advance a better drug candidate.
FOR RESEARCH USE ONLY
Supporting Preclinical Immuno-oncology Research
Preclinical immuno-oncology researchers in academic and commercial environments work with ClearLight to gain an early advantage in their quest to advance effective cancer therapeutics. Preclinical researchers leverage our expertise with CLARITY tissue clearing, thick tissue immunostaining, and Tru3D® tissue analysis to gain a better understanding of the tumor microenvironment. ClearLight has evaluated normal and cancerous tissues including lung, pancreas, colon, brain, breast, tonsil, eye, skin, and more.
Greater Clinical Success Requires Improved Preclinical Methods
“Sadly, clinical trials in oncology have the highest failure rate compared with other therapeutic areas… this low success rate is not sustainable or acceptable, and investigators must reassess their approach to translating discovery research into greater clinical success and impact.”
Cancer - Our Common Enemy
The nature of the disease is already challenging. When researchers don’t employ the best tools and technology, they are at an inherent disadvantage when fighting this dreadful disease. Making clinically impactful inroads in the fight against cancer is difficult even under the most ideal conditions.
Researchers need an early advantage. ClearLight’s preclinical lab services provide researchers with improved chances for later success at the clinical trials stage.
Cancer Isn’t 2-Dimensional
Before you see how a given therapeutic works in expensive clinical trials with humans consider using preclinical techniques that best approximate the three dimensional human environment. With ClearLight’s Lab Services researchers can see how a given therapeutic is actually working within the complex three-dimensional tumor microenvironment.
Understand how your therapy works in tissue before you get to the high stakes world of clinical trials.
Lab Services to Support Preclinical
Immuno-oncology Research
CLARITY Tissue Clearing
Need to know more about CLARITY Tissue Clearing? Visit the CLARITY tissue clearing page to learn the background and specific steps in the ClearLight CLARITY Tissue Clearing Process. Also, you can Download the CLARITY Tissue Clearing Infographic.
3D IHC
ClearLight offers antibody-based immunostaining or labeling for many nucleic acids (RNA/DNA) to highlight specific structures in the clarified sample. Multiplexed immunofluorescence staining enables advanced Tru3D™ tissue analysis.
Cancer Research Support Services
Cancer is not two-dimensional. Imaging biomarkers in three dimensions reveals novel insights, unobtainable with other technology. Download ClearLight Cancer Research Support Services collateral.
Benefits for Preclinical Immuno-oncology Researchers
- The CLARITY protocol enables researchers to work with larger tissue volumes to maintain tissue integrity and minimize the potential cell destruction associated with 2D thin section FFPE sample preparation.
- ClearLight has expanded the CLARITY protocol beyond the brain to include other normal and diseased tissues saving researchers precious time.
- ClearLight expertise in thick tissue antibody penetration gives researchers the ability to demonstrate that a given therapy is penetrating the tumor core.
- Imaging the tumor microenvironment in three dimensions reveals cell boundaries and shows if and where vascularization, apoptosis, or necrosis are occurring.
- Shows if the immune response is being activated and your experimental therapy is performing as designed.
- Have more confidence in your drug candidate, implantable device, or other intended therapeutic before advancing to clinical trials.
- Gain insights earlier in the process so that you can course-correct faster to succeed sooner.
Three Ways to Engage ClearLight in Your Preclinical Immuno-oncology Research
Proving
Feasibility
Feasibility can be about proving that CLARITY technology can effectively be applied to a particular tissue type or antibody. It can even be about post-CLARITY application feasibility. At this stage, we establish a pilot study to determine whether CLARITY is a good fit. Expected outcomes include "back to the drawing board" or a well-formed research question and advancement to the next phase. If the research question is a novel application for CLARITY we may engage in a collaboration.
Exploring
a Specific Question
Researchers typically have a specific research question in mind. They may have validated their work in a different format, say chromogenic immunohistochemistry on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples. Now they are interested in exploring that next dimension in 3D. There may still be an element of feasibility if their marker is not on our published list.
Guiding
Deeper Investigation
Researchers at this phase have already worked with ClearLight. It might be that researchers wish to try a different multiplex panel, examine a nearby section, or reinterrogate a tissue we’ve worked with before. Researchers might have new questions based on insights generated in the previous phase. ClearLight provides companies with cost-effective CLARITY tissue clearing and 3D IHC services. ClearLight's expertise and focus translate to customers receiving guided discovery and deeper investigation into the tissue microenvironment.
Performing research to better understand the tumor microenvironment?
Schedule a meeting with our Application Scientist.
ClearLight Lab Services Illuminate HEP55 Syngeneic Tumor
As an example of how ClearLight’s services can help immuno-oncology researchers, we can look at a multiplexed immunostained HEP55 Syngeneic Tumor example. We applied CLARITY tissue clearing, then immunostained, and imaged the sample in three dimensions.
When we rotate the sample to show several different views, the advantage of looking at the whole tumor microenvironment in three dimensions becomes apparent.
An immuno-oncology researcher may want to know:
- Is the given treatment triggering an immune response?
- Are the T-cells and macrophages activated?
- Are the T-cells and macrophages penetrating into the tumor?
Here we can see vascularization within the tumor. Vascularization like this is not easy to trace in two dimensions, but becomes obvious when viewed in 3D.
Looking at the tumor microenvironment in three dimensions we can see what appears to be the tumor boundary highlighted in green.
Hear Dr. Sharla White gives a tour of a multiplexed immunostained HEP55 syngeneic tumor in three dimensions. As it rotates through multiple orientations you can see the advantages of looking at the whole tissue in 3D.
Imagine we were testing a drug treatment. In this instance, we could tell there was a high macrophage response as a result of the treatment. However, the macrophages appear to be congregating in the tumor stroma and not penetrating into the core of the tumor. With this insight, an immuno-oncology researcher could then explore other options to help the macrophages actually penetrate into the tumor.
Talk with our Application Scientist to see how ClearLight can help with your preclinical immuno-oncology research.
ClearLight Supports Preclinical Immuno-Oncology Research
ClearLight is proud to support events and connect with researchers who are engaged in our common battle against defeating cancer. Consider meeting with us at an event and also joining our Creating Cures Community.
FAQs
No. ClearLight Biotechnologies provides study-related services to sponsors of drug research programs early in the drug development cycle. Our contract research and development services are for Research Use Only (RUO).