Summary:

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) seeks licensees for a tumorigenic cell line, A1847, from a patient with metastatic ovarian cancer. As a BRCA1 deficient cell line, it serves as a model to researchers studying cell cycle regulation, tumor suppression and effective drugs aiding in repair of DNA damage.

Description of Technology:

Mutations, such as loss of function, in the BRCA1 gene increase the risk of developing ovarian cancer. In its early stages, ovarian cancer may not cause any definitive symptoms but can rapidly progress within a year to advanced stage. This metastatic growth can occur by shedding cancerous cells into peritoneal fluid, often associated with epithelial ovarian cancer, its most common type. While treatments exist, it is limited by the development of drug resistance that is not succumbed to damage in cell death.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) researchers derived a metastatic ovarian carcinoma cell line, A1847, from a 50-year-old female. It was established as a continuous tumorigenic cell line and characterized by isozyme phenotype, short tandem repeat (STR) analysis and karyotypically with modal number 68 and 3 marker chromosomes. This cell line may be used to identify therapeutic targets and to screen drug candidates against ovarian cancer.

NCI is seeking parties to nonexclusively license the A1847 human ovarian carcinoma cell line.

Potential Commercial Applications:

• Tool to conduct preclinical proof-of-concept studies required for commercial development of anti-cancer agents and targeted therapies in ovarian cancer
• Research model to investigate epithelial ovarian cancer
• Research model for mechanistic studies of ovarian cancer and BRCA1-deficient tumors

Competitive Advantages:

• Well-characterized metastatic ovarian cancer cell line
• Tumorigenic cell line to generate animal models of metastatic ovarian cancer for commercial and research development