EPHORAN

1. Company name
EPHORAN Multi-Imaging Solutions

2. Company address and website
Via Ribes 5, 10010 Colleretto Giacosa, (To), Italy
http://www.ephoran-mis.com

3. Contact name and details
Vito Lorusso, [removed]

4. Company description

EPHORAN Multi-Imaging Solutions is a Contract Research Organization providing imaging expertise and knowledge to study, develop and promote the application of imaging technologies in preclinical drug research and development.

EPHORAN provides the opportunity to apply a translational pharmacological approach in drug R&D, evaluating in animal models a molecular-based proof of biological activity and mechanism of action, and translating it into the clinical setting. All the Techniques extensively employed in the clinical setting(e.g. PET, CT, SPECT, MRI, US and in Optical Imaging, both visible light and Near Infra Red) are available.

EPHORAN fosters the development of diagnostic tools, reagents and methodologies for experimental imaging and makes the drug development faster and more cost effective. Pharmaceutical companies will take advantage from its preclinical imaging technologies to carry on more effectively their R&D projects in different therapeutic areas such as oncology, cardiovascular and CNS. The application of Imaging techniques allows a significant reduction of the time-to-market of novel compounds. Other users that will benefit from access to Ephoran’s services are Researchers from academic and research institution.

Specialties: MRI Imaging services, PET/SPECT imaging services, CT imaging services, ultrasound and optical imaging services, Customer labeling with probes for MRI, CT, US and OI and contrast agents services for preclinical research.

5. Technology offer

EPHORAN is uniquely positioned in pre-clinical and clinical imaging allowing serial/longitudinal imaging experiments and , and during , pharmacology and toxicology animal studies.

EPHORAN’s services for pre-clinical imaging should provide access to MRI with 0.2 , 3 and 7T imagers, µPET/SPECT/CT, High Frequency Ultrasound and Bioluminescence and Fluorescence imagers.

Contrast agents for MRI , CT and US, both those already used in clinical setting and those specific for pre-clinical imaging, are available. The in-house availability of a cyclotron for industrial production of research PET tracers provides both labeled candidates and custom labeling of candidates molecules for pre-clinical studies (18 F, 68Ga, 111In, 177 Lu, 99Tc).

The availability of a state-of-the-art instruments allows to perform different kinds of experiments:

Oncology -> Imaging on Transgenic and Xenografts models (tumor metabolism, proliferation and growth, apoptosis , angiogenesis, drug efficacy evaluation)
Cardiovascular pathology -> Imaging on Transgenic and induced pathological models
Cerebral pathology -> Imaging on induced pathological models (stroke, glioma , degenerative pathologies)

Inflammation -> Imaging on induced pathological models (arthritis, macrophage detection)
Validation of new biomarkers of pharmacological activity as predictors of drug response in the clinical setting (novel drug delivery and gene therapy approaches).
Imaging provides a means of validating drug delivery to the site of action and of measuring the resulting pharmacokinetics of the therapies. No other tool or test provides this type of visual detail supported by numerical information related to a specific drug molecule.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): A clinical 0.2 T system for imaging large animals (dogs and minipigs) and rodents with dedicated coils, A 3 T system with a horizontal magnet (31 cm bore) equipped with two gradient bores (Φ>21cm,> 11cm); strength >200 mT/m and > 400 mT/m at 200A, two transmitter and receiver channels for 1H, 13C, and 18F imaging, two transmit and surface coils for brain and cardiac imaging of small and large animals. A 7T MR system with one gradient bore (Φ >15); strength 300 mT/m , RF coils mice and rats whole body, cardiac and respiratory gating.

Ultrasound Imaging (US), VisualSonics-VeVo2100 - High resolution micro-ultrasound system (spatial resolution < 30 µm) for mouse and rat

Optical Imaging (OI) Pearl Imager (Licor) designed for in vivo imaging in the near-infrared (NIR) spectral region , IVIS 200 Xenogen for Bioluminescence based Optical Imaging , Explore Optix (GE) for NIR fluorescence Optical Imaging

Nuclear Medicine: Triumph® pre-clinical PET/CT system scanner (GE Healthcare), an integrated imaging system that combines functional imaging provided by the LabPET4 sub-system with high-resolution anatomical imaging provided by the X-O(TM) CT sub-systemand a YAP-(S)PET Scanner for Multimode Functional Imaging on Small Animals .

6. Pharmaco-Toxicological testing

Pharma-tox activities performed under GLP rules and regulations are part of the offers of Ephoran Service using a network of qualified partners.

The Animal Facility is equipped to perform, help design and implement pilot and GLP-compliant pharmacology and toxicology in mice, rats and pigs. A flexible pre-clinical research and development service allows us to meet client’s need for a comprehensive program or a single study.
• Single and repeated dose toxicity studies including toxicokinetics
• Analytical methods development (HPLC, Elisa,etc)
• Pharmacokinetics (ADME)

7. Areas of interest

The Company is engaged in development of imaging services and Pharma and Toxicology services and in their promotion and application in preclinical drug research and development covering different therapeutic or diagnostic areas.
The selection of therapeutic/diagnostic areas is based on a number of factors:
• the areas of ongoing drug research and development
• the areas where Ephoran has its experience in term of imaging services
• the therapeutic areas where some relevant biomarkers are already known, simplifying the process of identifying relevant and more appropriate imaging technologies to be applied both in preclinical and in clinical settings.

More on:
http://www.ephoran-mis.com
http://www.linkedin.com/company/ephoran-multi-imaging-solutions/products