ForSaTum
Research satellite for an expedited realisation of novel concepts for tumour therapy
Introduction:
Despite of remarkable successes in cancer therapy, the mortality rate contingent on cancer is almost unabatedly high. Many oncologic diagnoses and therapy approaches are rejected as a consequence of high development costs and insufficient clinical efficiency. The major reason for this is the deficiency of animal experiment units for the standardized longitudinal examination of tumour models.
Non-invasive imaging enables the elicitation of physiological and molecular information which can increase the significance of preclinical studies and decrease the amount of clinically failed treatment concepts. Additionally, it significantly reduces the necessary number of experimental animals and development costs. Therefore, the goal is to set up a so far unique research satellite for an expedited realisation of novel concepts for tumour therapy. Four essential components of preclinical tumour research are combined:
- specialized animal experimental platform which supports the preparation of novel treatment concepts for clinical testing and provides its expertise as a service
- molecular imaging with development of highly innovative cutting-edge technology
- development of molecular probes and diagnostics as well as
- an information technology platform for intercommunication between the above mentioned fields.
Operations:
In a study-related database, additional to the initial data, the agglomerated data from image processing, quantisation and diagnosis as well as results of pharmacology, toxicology, pathology and laboratory chemistry is available. In order to attain a purposeful evaluation with valid results, an intelligent extraction of relevant data is to be implemented.
ForSaTum is sponsored within the NRW-EU Ziel 2-Programm “Regionale Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und Beschäftigung 2007-2013” (ERFE).
