Today, we’d like to introduce you to Peter Ellman of Certis Oncology, a San Diego-based biotech that is advancing translational and precision medicine through orthotopic patient-derived xenograft (O-PDX) models. Peter was introduced to us by the innovative team at Scientist.com.
Peter, thank you so much for joining us today. We’d love for you to bring our readers up to speed – can you introduce yourself and share your story?
I am Certis Oncology Solutions’ first employee — President and CEO — from the very beginning, since 2016. James (Jim) Berglund, the Chairman of Certis’ Board of Directors, formed the company to honor his son Barney, who had passed away from sarcoma. During Barney’s illness, Jim had met two physicians at UCLA:
Frederick (Fritz) Eilber, MD
Surgical Oncologist
Professor of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology,
Director of the UCLA Sarcoma Clinical/Translational Research Program
Arun Singh, MD
Medical Oncologist
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
It was Dr. Eilber and Dr. Singh who proposed the idea of using mouse avatars of Barney’s cancer to identify the best treatment options for Jim’s son. They began the process, but Barney passed before his mouse models were ready for testing.
Aggressive cancers like sarcoma often don’t give patients a lot of time, and Jim knew from experience that finding the right therapies for any given person is often a frustrating and painful exercise in trial and error. He wanted to spare other parents the pain of losing a child to cancer. So, he proposed to Dr. Eilber and Dr. Singh that they start a company to make in vivo testing in mouse avatars available commercially.
And that’s when Certis was founded.
That was over five years ago. It’s an honor to be a part of Certis’ powerful story.
I think the most important thing that I have learned about building successful companies is that it’s all about the people you hire and how everyone treats each other. It is imperative to create a team of highly motivated and skilled associates that understand and believe in the mission of the company and dedicate themselves to achieving its goals. I’m lucky to have all our Certisians!
As far as my background, many of my colleagues know me as a serial entrepreneur. I think my constant curiosity has led me to where I am today. I’m a serial learner, especially on my bike, clocking thousands of miles per year, listening to the latest podcast series or audiobook. My passion is quantum physics, but I love a variety of sciences. Paul Davies from Arizona State University (ASU) is a favorite theoretical physicist of mine who subscribes to the theory that cancer is unicellular. The orchestration of life is truly complex.
I’m a proud father of four grown sons and now a very grateful grandfather. When I’m not at the Certis Sorrento Valley office, you can often find me on my road bike cycling down the Pacific Coast Highway, earbuds in, consuming “The Building Blocks of Human Life”, or some other fascinating audible book. I also enjoy sailing, motorcycle trips and working on my golf game.
Please tell us more about your brand, Certis Oncology
Certis Oncology Solutions is a cutting-edge life science technology company dedicated to precision oncology and translational science. Our mission is to connect every patient to the right cancer treatment, the first time, every time. We explore options for precision therapies beyond the current standard of care and partner with pharmaceutical companies to help develop the next generation of targeted therapeutics. Certis is Latin for ‘certainty’. At Certis we say, “Certainty saves lives.” We deliver certainty, and we save lives. Every day, we learn more about the biology, chemistry, and complex mechanisms that drive cancer. We’re committed to staying on the leading edge of oncological science, leveraging the most clinically relevant tumor models, latest analytical techniques and advanced instrumentation to bring greater certainty to the fight against cancer. Certis provides in vivo drug efficacy testing to individual cancer patients and preclinical services to the life sciences industry in its development of new cancer therapies. We develop orthotopic patient-derived xenograft (O-PDX) models of human cancers in immunocompromised mice, which function as mouse avatars for individual patients. These mouse avatars enable the simultaneous testing of multiple therapies in the laboratory to determine which treatment or combination of treatments works best — or very importantly, does not work — on an individual patient’s unique form of cancer. Drug innovators contract this same technology to Certis to test and select the most promising candidates for clinical development.
At dinner parties, I’m constantly being asked, “So, how come we haven’t cured cancer yet, Pete?” For one, cancer is not one disease, it is many diseases. When it comes to understanding cancer, we need to constantly evolve our thinking. Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the US.[1] This year, 609,360 Americans are expected to die from cancer — that’s 1,670 deaths per day — plus 1.9 million more Americans are expected to be diagnosed with cancer.[1] Furthermore, US cancer-related health care costs are projected to increase dramatically [2] — exceeding $245 billion by 2030.[2] There are many tools available to advance the science and research of understanding the genomics, biology, and molecular mechanisms of cancer. Taking what we learn from research, we strive to develop better, more effective therapies and make them available to medical providers, to help, and hopefully cure, cancer patients. References: [1] Siegel, RL, Miller KD, MPH, Fuchs HE, BS, Jemal A, DVM, PhD. Cancer Statistics, 2022, American Cancer Society’s journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. Jan.-Feb. 2022. 72(1): 7-33. [2] AACR Cancer Progress Report 2021. Philadelphia: American Association for Cancer Research. 2021.
So, as we mentioned to our audience earlier, you were introduced to us by Scientist.com, and we really admire them and what they’ve built. For folks who might not be as familiar, can you tell them a bit about your experience with Scientist.com.
The team at Scientist.com are remarkable professionals to be in partnership with, and we value our ongoing working relationship.
Sourcing the right tumor model can be a challenge for drug innovators. Certis is a current supplier of clinically relevant, richly annotated, highly characterized, low-passage, patient-derived xenograft (PDX) tumor models for Scientist.com’s online Disease Model Finder, which helps drug discoverers find the most appropriate preclinical model for their unique projects. The Scientist.com marketplace, and the new Disease Model Finder in particular, have allowed new partners to quickly and efficiently become aware of our Tumor Bank offerings and potentially work together on drug discovery projects.
We also sponsored and participated in one of Scientist.com’s virtual events, part of a successful webinar series, where Certis presented an innovative approach to an industry challenge. In “Cutting Edge Conversations: The Role In Vivo Studies in Personalized Medicine,” we discussed how to advance translational and precision medicine through orthotopic patient-derived xenograft (O-PDX) models. You can watch the recorded webinar, “Cutting Edge Conversations: The Role of In Vivo Studies in Personalized Medicine,” at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNFy3kzH04k
Website: https://www.certisoncology.com
Instagram: @certis_oncology https://www.instagram.com/certis_oncology
Linkedin: Certis Oncology Solutions, Inc. https://www.linkedin.com/company/certis-oncology
Twitter: @CertisOncology https://twitter.com/CertisOncology
Facebook: @CertisOncology https://www.facebook.com/CertisOncology
Youtube: Certis Oncology https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeX4_jh3RlNKxQxZ89_utjg
Other: Certis Blog: https://blog.certisoncology.com Certis Oncology Solutions, Inc. 5626 Oberlin Drive, Suite 110 San Diego, CA 92121 For Patients & Oncologists: 858-228-4110; info@certisoncology.com For Drug Developers: 858-952-1820; busdev@certisoncology.com
