Announcing the launch of our new website Announcing the launch of our new website We are excited to announce the launch of our brand new website at https://www.bioarkive.com/. The official launch will be on September 2nd, 2020. Our goal was to make the new website faster, easier to navigate and more user-friendly.

As San Diego’s leading biorepository and pre-clinical research service provider, it’s important for us to make information regarding our services, capabilities and achievements easily accessible to our current and prospective clients. We endeavor to provide our client partners with the most accurate, up-to-date information and share our knowledge and expertise in the fields of Biobanking, Drug Discovery and Cold-chain Logistics.

It is our desire to provide useful information to our new and existing clients through a non-cluttered, easy to navigate page design. We will post opinions, relevant research findings, and useful reference material through our blog posts. Images and videos posted on our site will give an opportunity for interested parties to come visit us in a virtual setting. Our new website will also act as the access point for a secure client portal, where existing customers can access information about their stored materials. We encourage everyone to visit our social media pages through the buttons provided on the home page.

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies spend billions of dollars in drug discovery every year. Despite continuing commitment of extraordinary financial and personnel resources, an alarming proportion of oncology drugs continue to fail during clinical development. A number of causes are likely to account for high clinical failure rates, including (1.) a core discovery focus on preclinical models that poorly reflect complexities of human disease and (2.) an inadequate integration or understanding of translational biomarkers. These shortcomings, coupled with patent expirations, have created substantial revenue pressures. As a result, the pharmaceutical industry has derisked internal research through increased external investments in smaller partner companies who have novel drugs, drug targets or innovative discovery approaches. This approach has already yielded solid results and is exemplified by the emergence of immune targeted agents for cancer, most of which emerged from academic spin-offs and smaller biotechnology companies.

BioArkive has a long (>20 years) track record in working with advanced 3D tumor models that provide novel translational insights on prospective oncology drug candidates. Unlike BioArkive’s tumor microenvironment (TME)-aligned 3D models, the industry standard for drug screening, more often than not, inadequately mirrors relevant human tumor physiology. Some examples of poorly modeled attributes of human cancer include:

• Oxygen: ≤ 4.5% (blood capillary with tumor gradient)
• pH: pH=6.5-6.9 (acidified TME; Warburg Effect)
• Stiffness: ≤ 5,000 Pa (vs. 10^9 Pa for 2D)
• Dimensionality: Three dimensional (3D) environments
• TME Complexity: Complex, dynamic, limited nutrients
• Glucose: Limiting (less than 8-9 mM)
• Immune System: Inflammatory (cytokines, growth factors)
• Early Disease: 1st or 2nd line vs. late – multiple relapsed/refractory
• Tumor Cell Division: Weeks to months (human condition vs. day(s) in 2D)
• Cell-cell interactions: Extensive, multicellular interfaces