Angiogenesis

The Angiogenesis team at Southern Research has evaluated several thousand compounds as anti- or pro-angiogenic agents in recent years for a variety of clients. Moreover, our scientists work closely with clients to develop assays and models as well as to conduct biochemistry and molecular biology contract studies based on specific research and drug development needs. Our diverse capabilities include the following:

• In vitro angiogenesis assays
• Endothelial cell proliferation, migration/invasion, and tube-formation
• Assays with human circulating angiogenic cells, such as endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs)
• Three-dimensional (3D) angiogenesis assays under influence of other cell types with co-culture systems
• Three-dimensional (3D) co-culture assay system for cell-cell interactions in tumor microenvironment
• Assays for vascular targeting agent evaluation
• Angiogenesis assays for high-throughput screening (HTS)
• In vivo angiogenesis assays and analyses
• Chick Chorioallantoic Membrane (CAM) assay with quantitative analysis blood vessel formation
• Tumor angiogenesis Xenograft-CAM assay where human tumor cells are implanted on CAM, and tumor-stimulated new blood vessel formation is quantitatively analyzed
• Matrigel Plug assay in mice with quantitative analysis of microvessel density (MVD)
• Analysis of angiogenic effects for Xenograft mouse studies, including tumor MVD and levels of angiogenic growth factors in blood serum and tumor samples
• A new xenograft mouse model with regulated tumor angiogenesis and inducible metastatic phenotype, used in preclinical efficacy studies
• Biochemistry and molecular biology mechanistic studies
• Signal transduction, such as protein phosphorylation cascades, regulation of protein expression and localization
• Biomarkers associated with disease progression and treatment responses