Animal Models Core

The Animal Models Core of the Mayo Clinic Ovarian Cancer SPORE works to improve understanding of ovarian cancer and to enhance the development of novel therapies.

To support these goals, the core provides clinically relevant models that are highly translatable, helping investigators take treatments from the bench to the bedside in as safe a manner as possible.

The Animal Models Core uses models developed from Mayo Clinic's patient-derived xenograft (PDX) living tumor bank to develop novel therapies.

Consisting of more than 660 discrete models, these orthotopic patient-derived xenografts recapitulate the histologic, molecular and drug response characteristics of the source tumors as orthotopic models in severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice. In addition, these models spread throughout the peritoneal cavity, including omentum, just like the human counterpart.

In collaboration with the Biospecimens and Patient Registry Core and the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core, the Animal Models Core selects appropriate models based on source tumor (such as clinical parameters or germline genotypes) or PDX characteristics (such as drug sensitivity, mutation or gene expression profile) and expands them for use in experiments to evaluate treatment.