QGel on the way to enable personalised cancer therapies

QGel, co-founded in 2009 by Dr. Colin Sanctuary, has developed a solution that enables scientists to reproduce the complex physiology of the human body for faster and better predictability of the efficacy of treatments for patients. Today, the company provides cell-based assays for drug discovery, mainly in oncology. The predictability offered by QGel solutions could soon be leveraged in the clinic through partnerships for personalised medicine applications.

QGel has developed a synthetic 3D extracellular matrix technology that allows to grow tissues in 3D that otherwise could not be grown outside the human body. Derived from patients’ cells, these tissues grown in 3D, which can become mini organs, or organoids, encompass most features relevant to patients’ conditions and also mimic the way cells grow and interact within their natural environment. QGel’s technology allows the design of this 3D synthetic extracellular matrix, which is a fully defined and tunable hydrogel, to foster growth of cell lines, primary cells and organoids in 3D.

In the early stages, the company raised capital that has for seven years been used to develop and validate products that are currently being marketed. “We focused on scalability, that is, manufacturability and industrial usability, and we ensured that our products were compatible with standard robotics so that they could be used for immediate and key applications in the field, including for organoids, primary cells and over 40 human cancer cell models”, says Colin Sanctuary, CEO and co-founder of QGel.

“We signed our first contract for QGel Assay Kits in 2013 with a customer who quickly understood the power of QGel – bringing better predictability to drug discovery. Today, QGel is working with a handful of international pharma companies across the pond, and with several international academic centres of excellence”, he adds.

The same novel toolset that QGel has developed for drug discovery could also be applied to identify the right treatment for individual cancer patients. In 2015 patient cancer tissue obtained from biopsies has been grown with QGel in vitro to make thousands of miniature patient tumor-avatars.

These tumor-avatars successfully retained the key physiological features and heterogeneity of the patient’s cancer. Proof of Concept results indicate that QGel’s in vitro approach can predict which drug (or drug combinations) will work best for an individual patient prior to patient drug administration. QGel's technology is supported by scientific experts behind this organoid approach. Clinical assessment is the next step to validate this application and studies must be done to receive regulatory approval for commercial use with cancer patients on a global scale. “We think that QGel is the best technology that can turn this form of predictive personalized healthcare into reality for millions of cancer victims”, says Colin.

Next financing round
QGel has started another significant financing round that should be closed in the coming months. With the increased interest from all stakeholders in the personalized medicine field, QGel should soon become a technology of choice for drug discovery now and patients’ diagnostics later on. Its cost-effective and highly reliable nature should accelerate its use directly in hospitals with immediate benefits for patients. Like QGel, their financial partners want to improve the lives of patients by reinforcing predictability and allowing for more readily available and reliable treatments and drugs. QGel’s vision of making personalized medicine a reality for millions has so far been extremely well received within the financial community.