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Trial Services

Biomarker laboratory

CHDR houses and operates a state-of-the-art cellular laboratory and can handle fresh samples collected from both healthy subjects and patients to measure a wide variety of cellular responses.

State-of-the-art laboratory

CHDR's cellular laboratory was rebuilt in 2017 almost entirely from scratch. The facilities were upgraded to a dedicated, fully-equipped cell culture lab with space for four technicians. We also acquired an additional flow cytometer, increased the number of flow hoods and incubators, and purchased new equipment, including a fluorescence microscope, a stereo microscope, and ELISA and ELISPOT readers. Combined with bedside laboratory testing and a magnetic cell sorter, our facilities are fully equipped for the study of drug effects at the molecular and cellular levels. CHDR’s R&D laboratory team has also been expanded in recent years.

Have a look inside our biomarker lab

Facilities and equipment

  • Cell culture lab
  • Flow cytometer
  • Flow hoods
  • Fluorescent microscopy
  • ELISA
  • Magnetic cell sorter
  • ELISPOT reader

Capabilities

Cell isolation / sorting

  • Magnetic sorting (RoboSep)

Immunophenotyping

  • Flow cytometry (MACSQuant)
  • Cell surface markers
  • Intracelluar cytokines
  • Phosphoprotein profiling

Cell incubations / cultures

  • Primary cells (whole blood, PBMCs)
  • Intended pharmacology – in vitro and ex vivo drug effects
  • Unintended pharmacology – Fc-gamma mediated effects (Abs), contamination, endosomal TLRs (oligonucleotides)

Biomarkers in recent studies: examples

Dermatology research

  • Disease areas: psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, acne, HPV-mediated conditions

  • Pathways / mechanisms of action:

    · TLR7/8/9 (ex vivo)

    · TLR7 (in vivo imiquimod challenge)

    · T-cell costimulation

    · Antimicrobial peptides

    · Immunostimulation by antisense oligonucleotides (ex vivo)

Vascular medicine research

  • Disease areas: rheumatoid arthritis, atherosclerosis, pulmonary fibrosis

  • Pathways / mechanisms of action:

    · Inflammasome

    · T-cell costimulation

    · p38 MAPK

    · TLR4

    · Serum amyloid P

CNS research

  • Disease areas: Parkinson’s, MS, Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s (neurodegeneration), depression

  • Pathways / mechanisms of action:

    · TLR9

    · Inflammasome

    · Phosphokinases

    · Cholinergic pathways

    · In vivo myelin turnover

    · Mitochondrial function (relevant for neurodegenerative diseases)

Immunophenotyping

Our in-house laboratory is equipped with Miltenyi’s MACSQuant flow cytometer to enable immunophenotyping of target cells.

Immunophenotyping

Cell cultures and incubations/challenges: The isolation of primary human cells for downstream analysis of drug effects

At CHDR, we have the expertise, laboratory capacity, and access to human samples needed to develop customised biomarkers to answer specific research questions.

Cell cultures and incubations/challenges

Contact CHDR