North Carolina-based BioCytics, Inc. and Shanghai-based preclinical oncology contract research organization LIDE Biotech have announced a strategic alliance to co-develop immuno-oncology screening platforms and companion diagnostics for immune-based cancer cell therapies. The collaboration pairs BioCytics' autologous adaptive immune cell therapy (AAICT) manufacturing platform with LIDE's patient-derived xenograft (PDX) model library, with more than 2,300 PDX models spanning nearly 50 cancer types, including more than 370 drug-resistant models, according to LIDE’s current platform data. The combination could give BioCytics a preclinical system in which patient-derived tumors and autologous immune-cell products are evaluated within the same translational workflow, potentially supporting both therapy selection and biomarker development

The initial project, grounded in a recently executed memorandum of understanding, will build murine PDX models using human biospecimens drawn from BioCytics' ongoing IRB-approved tumor and immune cell collection study (NCT00571389), which opened in 2007. Those models will be used for in vivo validation studies evaluating drug resistance and induced cell death, with subsequent work incorporating DNA and RNA sequencing to characterize human anti-tumor immune cell function. LIDE's platform includes IO-based PDX formats specifically adapted for immune cell therapy evaluation, as well as more than 200 drug-resistant PDX models derived from patient samples and its proprietary miniPDX seven-day in vivo organoid assay. Financial terms were not disclosed.

LIDE Biotech's founder and CEO Dr. Danyi Wen described the deal as the company's first-ever partnership with a US-based company, framing it as a step toward making LIDE's preclinical technologies available outside China. For BioCytics, the alliance extends a recent series of external collaborations and development initiatives around its AAICT platform. In December 2024, BioCytics received a USD 100,000 G-Rex bioreactor grant from ScaleReady to scale up AAICT manufacturing. In July 2026, it announced a two-year multi-omics research initiative with UNC Charlotte and Carolina BioOncology Institute to map viral and non-coding genomic drivers of cancer as potential immunotherapy targets for the AAICT platform.

Access the AllSci platform to explore the science behind the news.

Spot something wrong? Report an issue with this article