XENOPAT SL

Their core work

XENOPAT is a Spanish SME specializing in patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models for preclinical cancer research — the company name itself signals this core capability. They generate and maintain in-vivo tumor models by implanting human cancer tissue into mice, enabling pharmaceutical and academic partners to test drug candidates against real patient tumors. Their project portfolio shows they provide PDX and patient-derived organoid platforms to EU consortia working on cancer therapy development, RNA therapeutics, and single-cell tumor profiling.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

XENOPAT's early H2020 participation (2017-2018) centered on broader drug discovery networks and epigenetic cancer diagnostics, as seen in 3D NEONET and EPIPHARM. From 2020 onward, they shifted decisively toward advanced tumor modeling — RNA-based cancer therapies (cONCReTE) and single-cell sequencing workflows for understanding therapeutic resistance (PERSIST-SEQ). The trend is clear: moving from general preclinical service provision toward higher-resolution, molecular-level tumor characterization.

XENOPAT is moving upstream from standard xenograft services toward integrating single-cell omics and spatial transcriptomics into their preclinical platforms, positioning them for precision oncology collaborations.

How they like to work

XENOPAT participates exclusively as a partner, never as coordinator — consistent with their role as a specialized service provider embedded in larger research consortia. With 61 unique partners across 15 countries from just 5 projects, they join broad, international teams where their PDX expertise fills a specific niche. This makes them a low-risk, plug-in partner: they bring a concrete capability without competing for consortium leadership.

Despite being a small SME, XENOPAT has built a remarkably wide network of 61 partners across 15 countries through 5 projects, indicating they are well-connected in the European preclinical oncology research community. Their base near Barcelona places them in one of Spain's strongest biomedical clusters.

What sets them apart

XENOPAT occupies a specific niche that few SMEs fill: providing patient-derived xenograft and organoid platforms as a commercial service to EU research consortia. Unlike academic groups that maintain small PDX collections for internal use, XENOPAT offers this as a dedicated, reproducible service — making them a practical choice for consortia that need in-vivo tumor models without building the capability in-house. Their recent move into single-cell sequencing workflows adds analytical depth on top of their model-generation expertise.

Highlights from their portfolio

• PERSIST-SEQ
  Their largest project (EUR 375,000), combining patient-derived xenografts with single-cell sequencing to study why tumors resist treatment — represents their strategic direction.
• cONCReTE
  Running until 2025, this MSCA-RISE project on cancer RNA therapeutics connects XENOPAT's xenograft models with the growing RNA medicine field.
• EPIPHARM
  An ERC Proof of Concept project developing a commercial ncRNA methylation diagnostic kit — shows XENOPAT's involvement in translating research toward market-ready tools.