A Letter from Dr. Neal Goodwin
JAX® NOTES Issue 509, Spring 2008
The JAX® In Vivo Services Cancer program offers customized cancer research services suited to individual client requirements. This focus on individualized customer service currently offers a breadth of technologies that spans from traditional xenograft services to advanced humanized mouse models of cancer. The portfolio is dynamic and is constantly being augmented to service the increasing demands of cancer translational medicine.
Currently, the program is performing drug efficacy and biomarker discovery studies in multiple xenograft and orthotopic models of cancer across ten therapeutic disease areas. These studies employ all major therapeutic drug classes, including nucleic acid therapeutics, biologics, and small molecule therapeutics that are administered by various routes, including oral gavage, tail vein intravenous, jugular catheter intravenous, and intraperitoneal. The platform is being expanded to include multiple imaging technologies, including in-house biophotonic imaging, and MRI and PET imaging through collaborative arrangements. The program has instant access and support from The Jackson Laboratory, an NCI-designated cancer center with nearly 80 years of excellence in mouse modeling human disease, including cancer. The Jackson Laboratory is renowned for both its extensive mouse model resources and experienced research staff that includes over 500 people with advanced degrees, including PhDs and DVMs. The cancer services platform provides a diverse clientele, both biopharmaceutical industry focused and academic located, increased in vivo research capacity with timeline driven project execution.
The future will continue to be dynamic, and program goals include developing advanced humanized models of cancer in the NOD.Cg-Prkdcscid Il2rgtm1Wjl/SzJ (005557) mouse engrafted with primary human clinical isolates. Additionally, new endogenous mouse models are being validated that will more effectively model human clinical cancer, allowing for more predictive research to be conducted for establishing better therapeutics and understanding drug mechanisms of action. Translational cancer discovery research is challenging, and JAX® will continue to grow its cancer in vivo services offerings to meet market demands with a focus on individual client-driven customer service.
Neal C. Goodwin, PhD
Program Director, Cancer
In Vivo Research Services
The Jackson Laboratory, JAX West
For more information about In Vivo Services or cancer research at The Jackson Laboratory, contact us at 800-422-6423, 207-288-5845, or jaxservices@jax.org. Also, please visit our website.
Neal Goodwin PhD has recently joined JAX® In Vivo Services as Program Director, Cancer. Dr. Goodwin served a postdoctoral fellowship in functional genomics at The Jackson Laboratory in the laboratory of Dr. John Schimenti PhD, now at Cornell University. He served as a Senior Scientist in the Mouse Genetics/Genomics and Biotechnology program at Pharmacia, where his responsibilities included mouse modeling of multiple therapeutic areas including cancer, high speed mutagenesis platforms, and ES cell technologies. Dr. Goodwin most recently served as Chief Scientific Officer and Co-founder of ProNAi Therapeutics, where his responsibilities included the pre-clinical development of a new class of cancer therapeutics for multiple cancers.
