Molecular Imaging, a contract research organization (CRO) providing multi-modality preclinical in vivo imaging services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, has entered into a licensing agreement with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston to access a number of luciferase-enabled cancer cell lines developed at Dana-Farber.

The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based company said that access to these lines expands its ability to apply bioluminescent imaging technology to cancer disease models, including capability in various leukemias, multiple myeloma, triple-negative breast cancer, glioma and melanoma.

Molecular Imaging will collaborate with Andrew L. Kung, MD, PhD, and Scott A. Armstrong, MD, PhD, to further develop and make available these, and other cell lines, to improve the quantification and predictive power of bioluminescent imaging in cancer. Kung is director of the Lurie Family Imaging Center at Dana-Farber, is an associate professor of pediatrics at Dana-Farber, Children's Hospital Boston and the Harvard Medical School. Armstrong is an associate professor of pediatrics at Dana-Farber, Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School and is co-director of both the Cancer Program/Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center's leukemia program.