Future investment plan - HCS Pharma announces the success of the ONCO3D project to discover new anti-cancer therapies

Future investment plan - HCS Pharma announces the success of the ONCO3D project to discover new anti-cancer therapies

HCS Pharma, a company based in Lille and created in 2013, unveils the successes of the ONCO3D project, aimed at discovering new anti-cancer therapies, in particular for breast cancer (the number one cancer in women, with 2.09 million cases (11.6%) worldwide and more than 600,000 deaths in 2018 according to the World Health Organisation).

In particular, the company was able to produce, in vitro, 3D tumour microenvironments, which was one of the challenges of the project. Indeed, the microenvironment plays a crucial role in the development and recurrence of many solid cancers, but also in their response to treatment. Thus, these achievements will allow the development of innovative treatments and drugs in the coming years.

As a reminder, cancer is known as an uncontrolled proliferation of cells forming a tumour in an organ. All current therapies (surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy or immunotherapy) aim to kill these cancer cells. However, it has been proven that the major event in the creation and progression of a cancer is an overproduction of structural elements around the cells: they thus induce mechanical stress on the cells, which respond by proliferating in an anarchic manner. It is this major parameter that must be taken into account today. BIOMIMESYS is the only technology that makes it possible to reproduce this mechanical stress on cells in 3D in vitro models.  The results of this ONCO3D project, in partnership with several cancer research institutes (CNRS, INSERM within the ONCOLille Institute), have shown that it is possible to stop the proliferation of cancer cells and therefore the progression of the tumour by targeting the cells that generate this stress.

This project was made possible thanks to a grant under the future investment plan, partly financed by the Hauts-de-France region and by the BPI (French regional enterprise development organisation). 

Thanks to this project, new BIOMIMESYS products (3 tumour microenvironments of different rigidity from breast cancer to pancreatic cancer) will be commercialised. The continuation of this project is a Franco-Taiwanese partnership that will be set up between HCS Pharma, the ONCOLille Institute and several research institutes in Taiwan, in particular the Academia Sinica and the NARLAB, to continue the development of new products (Organ-on-Chip).

HCS Pharma is a biotechnology company that develops and distributes products for growing human or animal cells in an artificially created organ-like environment. Its technology is based on a 3D cell culture system that best replicates the biological environment and allows better results for research and biological testing. 

For more information visit the HCS Pharma website.