Ex-Vivo Platform

Ex-Vivo Platform, Cheney B 3^rd floor

The Ex-Vivo translational platform has been built in 2015 and works at the direct interface of clinical and research departments. It supports academic and industrial preclinical research projects.

Séverine Tabone-Eglinger, Scientific Director and head of PGEB
severine.tabone-eglinger@lyon.unicancer.fr

Sophie Léon, Platform Manager
sophie.leon@lyon.unicancer.fr

The 2 major functions of the ex vivo platform are:

1) To organize and centralize the provision of fresh human tissue samples to medico-scientific community.
All research projects requiring the expertise of the Ex-vivo platform are evaluated by a specific committee to define priorities stakeholders and verify respect to legal and ethics requirements.

2) To propose predictive tests evaluating the response to therapeutic agents on organotypic sections of human or animal tissues.
This innovative and relevant technology in the context of personalised medicine mimics the patient’s therapeutic response while preserving the architecture of the tumour and its microenvironment

Expertise carried out within the platform:

We work with you to find the most appropriate experimental approach to meet your objectives.

Preparation of fresh tissues before your analyses (cytof, single cell, …) :
Tumor dissociation with gentle MACS technology, cell counting and viability, fixation …
Making simple organotypic sections:
Sections of 100 to 250µm can be made on fresh tissue with a “vibratoma”
Ex-Vivo predictive tests:
250µm sections are cultured in optimized medium for 24 to 48h with molecules of interest.
The sensitivity of tumor cells is routinely assessed by analysis of histological markers of proliferation and apoptosis on these slices fixed after culture.
Other markers can be studied on request (one slice can give 30 histological slides). All histological analyses are performed in collaboration with the pathology research platform .
Other approaches can be implemented by researchers as an alternative or complement to fixation:
- Analysis of cytokines or other secreted proteins in the culture supernatant of slices.
- Flow cytometry to evaluate cell functionality (ex: cytotoxicity of T lymphocytes infiltrating fresh tumors).

The platform participates in the development of drug candidates in collaboration with research teams, C3D and biopharmaceutical companies to strengthen the proof of concept and pave the way for clinical trials.

Mention us in your publications !

To allow our platform to pursue its objectives, we need you to mention our work in your publications as follows:
Plateforme EX-VIVO, Université de Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, INSERM 1052, CNRS 5286, Centre Léon Bérard, Centre de recherche en cancérologie de Lyon (CRCL), Lyon, 69373, France