Preclinical Research

Solving Your Toughest Preclinical Challenges

When you partner with us to test your therapeutic, vaccine or medical device in preclinical models, you get more than just a service: you gain access to a network of over 1,200 clinical and basic research faculty, scientific expertise based on 60 years of groundbreaking translational research and the capabilities and infrastructure of a major academic medical center. We can help solve your toughest preclinical research problems by simplifying access to the expertise and resources of a leading research institution.

Your Preclinical Research Partner

Wake Forest Innovations expedites your access to the specialized preclinical research capabilities of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Through our Alliance Management team we streamline your preclinical studies, providing a one-stop-shop that operates according to the business practices and timelines you’re accustomed to.

Our job is to create entry points to the most valuable aspects of our research organization by:

  • Matching you with leading experts in their fields who will serve as the principal investigators or study directors on your study
  • Helping you choose the best research model for your study, whether from our historical expertise, including nonhuman primate models, or by creating a novel approach for your study
  • Backing your study with our institution’s technical services, including imaging capabilities, high-caliber surgical services and a wide range of core laboratories
  • Providing guidance at the study conclusion, including standard study data interpretation from our principal investigators, but also insight about wider research implications

Our priority is providing you with the best insight possible for you to determine if your product is ready to move into clinical development, and making sure doing business with us easy, seamless and efficient.

Advance Your Preclinical Project

Let us know how we can partner with you to advance your preclinical project with access to our leading investigators, state-of-the-art facilities and novel animal models.
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Areas of Preclinical Excellence

We have a broad range of expertise and preclinical research opportunities. Explore some of our established preclinical research models or lean on our depth of experience to advance your novel research.

Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease

From genomics and cellular bioenergetics to cognitive and physiological disorders, our researchers are looking for solutions to aging-related conditions, diseases and disorders. Our experts work with preclinical models for Alzheimer’s disease and memory and cognition, supported by resources like PET and MRI imaging modalities.
Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease

Biomedical Engineering

The Virginia Tech – Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences program specializes in research areas like tissue engineering, biomechanics, biomedical imaging and trauma. Researchers in these areas and others make use of preclinical anatomical models, trauma models, specialized imaging capabilities and measurements of physiological loading.
Biomedical Engineering

Cancer

Cutting-edge preclinical cancer research at Wake Forest Baptist focuses on small molecule and nanoparticle therapies in xenograft models, gene therapy and immunotherapy evaluation, brain metastasis models and cell culture screening. Our experts use ex vivo organ culture, specialized radiation techniques and novel assays to study the mechanisms of cancer.
Cancer

Cardiovascular

Our scientists engage in multidisciplinary research from diet-induced atherosclerosis to aging-related heart failure and more. Our preclinical models for heart failure, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease can be used to explore novel therapeutics, medical devices and groundbreaking tissue-engineering research.
Cardiovascular

Dermatology

Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist investigate a range of dermatologic research, including studies that use preclinical models for wound healing and soft tissue grafting, as well as topical studies for a host of dermatological conditions.

Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism

Studies at Wake Forest Baptist capitalize on the collaboration of researchers from numerous disciplines to investigate metabolic conditions and disease states. Particularly, our researchers provide expertise in developing nonhuman primate models for the study of metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and NASH.
Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism

Infectious Diseases

Our preclinical researchers investigate infectious diseases by accessing our unique colony of nonhuman primates that include both adults and juveniles for vaccine development and infections.
Infectious Diseases

Neurosciences and Neurology

Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist are world leaders in translational research in substance abuse liability, pain and itch, cognition, gene-diet interactions and more. Our investigators conduct studies using a number of preclinical models, including models for epilepsy, memory and cognition, pain, hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke and brain trauma.
Neurosciences and Neurology

Orthopaedics

Our orthopaedic clinicians and researchers conduct preclinical research utilizing specific models for orthopaedic research, including models for window defect, segmental defect, closed fracture, tendon repair, bone formation, and biocompatibility, supported by capabilities in osteoclast and osteoblast cell cultures.

Orthopaedics

Explore Our Technical Services

What often sets an academic medical institution apart is its access to the latest technologies and techniques. Now those resources are at your fingertips. Explore some of our technical services available to support your preclinical study.
Learn More

Our Interdisciplinary Edge

One of the major benefits of working with an academic medical center is the collaborative relationships of our preclinical and clinical investigators. When you bring differing disciplinary perspectives together on a study, it can have a positive impact on your preclinical research—like a clinician anticipating differences between human patients and the animal model in testing. Our collaborative researchers can:

  • Bring unique approaches and formulate creative solutions to research problems
  • Anticipate problems early—before they surface in clinical stages of development
  • Help design preclinical trials that better translate to clinical applications
  • Offer insights into new avenues of research for products in development
  • Assess the user friendliness of a potential product and offer solutions to make the device or therapeutic more effective in clinical settings

While it is impossible to remove all the risk and uncertainty from your preclinical research, we can help you make smarter, more informed decisions about your study.