Champions Oncology Careers, Pay and Expert Network

Champions Oncology is an American technology company that develops mouse avatars. Called TumorGrafts, they are used to test a panel of chemotherapy regimens, targeted therapies and monoclonal antibodies to identify potential therapeutic options for cancer patients. The company was founded in 2007 by David Sidransky, M.D., a Johns Hopkins oncologist that was named by TIME as one of the top physicians and scientists in the United States in 2001. Champions TumorGrafts maintain the microenvironment surrounding the tumor and have been shown to have high correlation to the patient’s tumor. Due to this close resemblance to the human tumor, TumorGrafts are highly predictive of treatment outcomes in patients. Studies have shown the mouse avatars predict clinical benefit in 80% of patients. Approximately 450 TumorGrafts have been established as of April 2014.[citation needed] TumorGrafts are also being used as a pre-clinical research tool to improve clinical drug development. Compared to traditional xenograft models, TumorGrafts, have a greater degree of accuracy in predicting clinical effectiveness of oncology drugs and thus can decrease clinical risk for drug developers. Champions has formed partnerships with multiple drug developers, including Teva and Pfizer.