VTT to do drug development work for Bayer

Collaboration agreement

The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Germany have signed a two-year contract under which VTT will investigate the mode of action of one of Bayer’s preclinical cancer drugs. VTT will apply new gene and cancer biology methods such as the 3D-cell culture model developed at its Medical Biotechnology unit in Turku, Finland.

The 3D cancer cell culturing model enables the study of the cells in an environment that better approximate to conditions in the human body than conventional 2D cell culture models. This makes it possible to access the invasive and metastatic behaviour of cancer cells, provides a better prediction of a drug’s likely efficacy and makes it easier to investigate the molecular mechanisms of action of small-molecule compounds.

“Over the past five years, we have invested heavily in R&D and we have become leading specialists in the field of molecular cancer research. Our work and technologies have greatly benefited clients and this has now translated into major new business assignments,” says the project leader, Marko Kallio.