Cytiva and Pear Bio empower personalized cancer medicine with innovative single-cell technology

• Setting new benchmarks in cancer treatment research, Cytiva's Via Extractor tissue disaggregator is being used to create dissociated tumor cell suspensions with high viability and yield.
• The collaboration focuses on improving patient outcomes through the ​personalized ​evaluation of ​treatment efficacy on ​patient-derived tumors.

September 25, 2024

Cytiva, a global leader in life sciences, and Pear Bio, a pioneer in personalized cancer medicine, are collaborating to advance cancer research and personalized treatment. Pear Bio is using Cytiva’s Via Extractor technology to create dissociated tumor cell suspensions with high viability and yield, revolutionizing tumor cell analysis.

Pear Bio processes tumor cells and matched patient immune cells, culturing them ex vivo in 3D environments to test the efficacy of FDA-approved therapies specific to various cancer indications using Cytiva's Via Extractor tissue disaggregator technology. Over five days, a confocal scanning microscope performs 3D imaging of the microtumors, and Pear Bio’s proprietary Computer Vision Pipeline analyzes the data to generate dozens of phenotypic biomarkers that reveal the drug's impact on the microtumors. The quality and viability of these tumor cells in their single-cell suspension are critical to Pear Bio’s downstream workflow, ensuring precise and reliable results.

The trend of using 3D models in drug discovery and pre-clinical testing is transforming biomedical research. Traditional 2D cell cultures often fail to accurately mimic the complex structure and microenvironment of human tissues. In contrast, 3D models provide a more physiologically relevant environment, leading to improved predictive accuracy of drug efficacy and toxicity while also reducing the reliance on animal testing. By adopting this approach, Pear Bio captures complex cellular interactions and provides a more accurate representation of how drugs will behave in the human body, ultimately improving patient outcomes.

Tim Bervoets, President, Discovery & Medical, Cytiva, says: "This advancement is a significant step forward in the fight against cancer. By leveraging our Via Extractor technology, Pear Bio reaches the cell viability and integrity levels that are essential for their advanced cancer treatment research. Together, we aim to enhance the effectiveness of cancer therapies and improve patient outcomes."

John Curran, Chief Operating Officer & Laboratory Director, Pear Bio, says: "We are thrilled with the performance of Cytiva’s Via Extractor in our workflows. The high cell viability and integrity it provides are critical for our novel cancer medicine analysis, enabling us to achieve more reliable and efficient results."

Pear Bio has integrated the Via Extractor into their workflows across both UK and US sites, ensuring consistently high cell viability and continuity in testing. Pear Bio already operates Via Extractors in their labs at both locations.

About Cytiva
At Cytiva, our mission is to advance and accelerate the development of therapeutics. With nearly 15 000 associates in more than 40 countries, we’re driven to use our expertise and talent to achieve better flexibility, capacity, and efficiency for our customers.  Our broad and deep portfolio of tools and technologies, global scale, and best-in-class service provides critical support from discovery to delivery, for customers spanning researchers, emerging biotech, large-scale biopharma, and contract manufacturers. Learn more at cytivalifesciences.com.

About Pear Bio
Pear Bio is delivering functional precision medicine tests and therapeutics to patients with hard-to-treat cancers. We take tumor biopsies from patients, turn them into 3D immune-microtumors and test various treatment options side-by-side to predict response and match patients with an effective therapy. We then characterize excess tissue to identify new targets and develop therapeutics for patients with high unmet need.

Media contact Cytiva:
James McGarry
james.mcgarry@cytiva.com

Media contact Pear Bio:
John Curran
John@pearbio.com