Research

Research

At LipExoGen, we strive to accelerate your preclinical R&D by providing specific tools and services to help you meet your research goals. The examples below highlight a few research areas that our team of scientists specialize in, and depict how our unique products and services can compliment your individual research niche in ways that other service providers and vendors can’t.

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Drug Development

LipExoGen provides specific products or services to compliment each of the key aspects of preclinical drug development described above. For example, our scientists specialize in genetic approaches to establish stable gene knockdown or knockout for target validation using lentiviral particles to abrogate expression of your gene of interest, even in challenging cells such as primary or thawed cells. LipExoGen provides lentiviral TF reporter systems useful for validation of a compound’s effect on specific gene transcription or molecular signaling pathways in vitro. Alternatively, LipExoGen can perform custom gene cloning, mutagenesis, or gene regulation services to compliment your project in the phase of target and drug discovery. For in vivo aspects of drug development, LipExoGen provides in vivo imaging tools such as lentiviral constructs which can be used to establish fluorescent or bioluminescent reporters to track cell growth in mice by in vivo bioluminescent imaging or flow cytometric techniques. LipExoGen is also an ideal partner for formulation development as our scientists provide expertise in liposomal formulation technologies which can help you accelerate your time to clinical studies by addressing the solubility, bioavailability, and/or toxicity concerns of your lead molecules.

ORF cDNA Custom Cloning

Immunology and Immunotherapy

The immune system is involved in nearly all aspects of human health and its dysregulation contributes to or drives the pathology of many diseases including cancer and autoimmune disorders. In cancer, monoclonal antibodies targeting immune checkpoints such as CTLA-4 or the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway are pivotal in some of the most recent breakthroughs in cancer therapy and have revolutionized the concept of cancer immunotherapy in the last decade. The products and services provided by LipExoGen scientists can be used to compliment immunology and immunotherapy research in many ways. For example, our team is capable of engineering exosomes with surface immunomodulatory proteins or protein domains and isolating them in yields sufficient for use in mouse models of disease. Alternatively, we provide liposome vehicles containing adjuvants that can be used as the framework for vaccine or immunomodulatory drug development wherein the molecule of interest can be custom loaded/conjugated to the liposomes via our liposomal development services. We also provide premade liposomes containing adjuvants that are ready for conjugation with other molecules, loading with drugs or other agents, or preloaded with popular drugs for your convenience.

Gene Editing/Mutagenesis

Oncology and Chemotherapy

Cancer chemotherapy can be an effective approach for cancer treatment, but generally faces major challenges including transient efficacy as cancer cells often acquire drug resistance. Futhermore, off-target effects limit the clinical application of these compounds by causing dose-limiting toxicities to normal tissues. Nanotechnology and nanomedicine are fields that have evolved to help improve these issues and optimize the therapeutic indices of conventional chemotherapy agents. Moreover, new drug combination strategies have become popular in recent years to improve the efficacy of other chemotherapies, avoid problems of acquired drug resistance, and identify novel synergistic ratios of drugs that provide unexpectedly superior effects towards cancer. LipExoGen’s liposomal formulation services are a go-to resource for preclinical stage researchers interested in any of these popular concepts. For example, our scientists can co-load liposomes with multiple drugs at predefined “synergistic” ratios determined by your own preliminary studies, which can be supplied for your use in vitro or in vivo with murine cancer models. In general, liposomal drug formulations tend to be less toxic while equally or more effective than “free drug” counterparts in parenteral applications. In addition to providing a wide variety of basic custom liposomal drug formulation services, our experts can also conjugate cancer-targeting molecules such as folate, RGD peptide, or customer-defined molecules to the liposome surface to help improve therapeutic index of your compound and achieve tumor-specific delivery. Apart from formulation services, LipExoGen also provides exosome isolation services, which can allow you to streamline your research in the rapidly growing field of tumor exosomes.

Tumor Models

Tumor models using mice as hosts are invaluable for studying cancer and evaluating drug efficacy in preparation for clinical trials in humans. However, establishing reliable tumor models that recapitulate original features of the primary tumor in mice can be challenging. The steps to establish a tumor model usually involve surgical resection of the tumor tissue from humans or mice, and the re-transplantation of the tumor cells into new recipient mice. If genetics studies or in vivo monitoring of tumor growth by bioluminescent or fluorescent reporters is desirable, the primary tumor cells can be briefly cultured and transduced with lentivirus in vitro, and then quickly transplanted into new recipient mice. To preserve the original features of the tumor, it is critical to limit time spent in vitro culture. However, primary tumor cells are also frequently difficult to maintain in vitro, which makes it challenging to establish lentiviral transduction without significant cell death. This issue can be improved by using high-titer lentiviral particles that can quickly and efficiently deliver the gene construct of interest, while minimizing in vitro culture time and helping to preserve the original features of the tumor. To meet these needs, LipExoGen offers high-titer lentiviral particles which can be used to establish high-efficiency gene knockdowns, bioluminescent/fluorescent reporters which can be used for in vivo monitoring of tumor growth, and other custom services based on your individual needs.