The present invention provides a human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line derived from a patient derived xenograft. The novel human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells comprise human herpesvirus 4 and specific short tandem repeat loci. Also provided are cellular composition comprising the novel nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line described herein and the use of the novel nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line for detecting a potential therapeutic agent.

The invention provides methods of preparing a sample of viable diseased cells obtained from a human subject for clinical testing, wherein the methods inhibit anoikis and/or anoikis in the cells while maintaining the physiological functions and genomic composition of the cells when they were in vivo. In the methods of the invention, primary cells are cultured in media comprising at least one anoikis inhibitor, preferably at least one inhibitor of an intrinsic anoikis pathway and at least one inhibitor of an extrinsic anoikis pathway, under anti-anoikis atmospheric conditions, such as greater than 2% and less than 20% oxygen. Method combining multiple culturing conditions, including surface attachment under conditions that inhibit anoikis, are also provided. Compositions and kits for use in the methods of the invention are also provided.

Certain universal neoepitopes and cancer specific neoepitopes and methods therefore are presented that may be used in immunotherapy and cancer diagnosis. Preferred therapeutic and diagnostic compositions include antibodies or fragments thereof that bind to neoepitopes on cancer cells.

Provided herein are carrier cells and virus combinations and methods for treatment of cancers. Also provided are modified carrier cells for such treatment, and methods of selecting carrier cells that are matched to subjects for such treatment.

An object of the present invention is to develop a technique of reducing cancer stem cells. The solution is to provide a human-derived anti-human Cripto-1 antibody containing specific amino acid sequences.

High mitochondrial ATP is a metabolic trait that confers hyper-proliferation, sternness, anchorage-independence, anti-oxidant capacity and multi-drug resistance in cancer cells. Under the present approach, intracellular ATP levels may be used as a metabolic biomarker to identify, separate, and purify an aggressive and hyper-proliferative cancer stem cell (“CSC”) phenotype. Further, ATP may be combined with other CSC markers, e.g., CD44 or ALDH-activity, to beneficially fractionate the CSC population into sub-populations. For example, ATP-high/ CD44-high CSC sub-populations showed twice the level of anchorage-independent growth compared to ATP-low/CD44-high CSC sub-populations. Also disclosed are complementary bioinformatic data that implicate mitochondrial ATP synthesis in stemness, metastasis, and the detection of circulating tumor cells (“CTCs”), and a five-member, ATP-related metastasis gene-signature (ABCA2, ATP5F1C, COX20, NDUFA2 and UQCRB). The gene signature of the present approach may be used to identify CSCs having a dramatic increase in cell migration and invasion in vitro capacity, as well as spontaneous metastasis in vivo. The present approach also provides a cellular platform for systematically targeting sternness, multi-drug resistance, and metastasis in cancer cells.

The present invention relates to a chemically defined medium for eukaryotic cell culture, comprising water, at least one carbon source, one or more vitamins, one or more salts, one or more growth factors, one or more fatty acids, one or more buffer components, selenium and one or more further trace elements and its use in the culture of cancer stem cells, in particular tumorsphere culture of cancer stem cells.

A method is disclosed for treating a cancer in a subject that involves administering to the subject a therapeutically affective amount of a geranylgeranyltransferase I (GGTase I) inhibitor, such as GGTI-2418, wherein the cancer comprises a defective PTEN, a hyperactivated FBXL2, or a low level of IP3R3. In some embodiments, the method further involves administering to the subject a therapeutically affective amount of an Akt inhibitor.

Disclosed are microcapsule compositions and methods for encapsulating living cells. The methods include a microencapsulation approach to isolate and culture high-quality stem cells, including human iPSCs, cancer stem cells, cardiac stem cells, and the like. The microencapsulation methods are inspired by the development of blastomeres into a blastocyst within the Zona pellucida of the human female reproductive system. The bioinspired methods include encapsulation of blastomere-like cell clusters in a Zona-like microcapsule including a miniaturized hyaluronic acid-rich core and a semipermeable hydrogel shell. The cell clusters are subsequently cultured to form highly pluripotent spheroids with improved cell quality, homogeneity, and viability. Methods of use of said microcapsules are also disclosed including therapeutic uses related to human iPSC-based personalized medicines.

The present application discloses a method for generating less mature cells from starting cells including inducing the starting cells to revert to a less mature state including increasing the amount of an NME family member whose multimerization state is the biologically active state or decreasing the relative amount of an NME family member whose multimerization state is the biologically inactive state.