Organoid technology has advanced cancer research and is leading to the development of more effective treatments. Organoids are three-dimensional, live tissue models grown from patient tumors. The fact that organoids are alive makes them powerful as tools to understand a tumor鈥檚 response to a specific treatment. If a treatment is effective in the organoid model, it might predict a favorable patient response. 黑料吃瓜资源 Cancer Center Director David Tuveson, M.D., Ph.D., is an organoid pioneer, championing a new 2,200 square-foot facility dedicated to deploying this game-changing technology.
Opening its doors fall 2020, CSHL鈥檚 organoid facility has three full-time scientific staff. Facility Manager Dennis Plenker, Ph.D., refers to the unique organoid operation as a 鈥渓iving biobank.鈥� Plenker explains that, 鈥淯p to now, cancer research has relied on patient tumor samples that are dead tissue, but with organoid technology, the patient samples are living and renewable.鈥�
The CSHL Cancer Center shares organoids it develops with CSHL faculty and researchers outside the Laboratory. This shared resource facility has already produced 200 human neoplastic organoids with support from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Half of those organoids were generated at CSHL under contract with the NCI鈥檚 Human Cancer Models Initiative as a resource for scientists around the world.
Later this year, the CSHL organoid facility will grow and test approximately 150 new organoids as part of a clinical trial to evaluate two chemotherapy regimens for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The goal of the trial, called (PASS-01), is to personalize therapy based on how an individual patient鈥檚 organoid responds to the treatments. Sponsored by the University Health Network, Toronto, CSHL鈥檚 collaborators are Johns Hopkins University, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Northwell Health, and Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C). The trial is funded by the Lustgarten Foundation, Pancreatic Cancer Canada, and SU2C.
鈥淲e are grateful for the philanthropic support CSHL received from TD Bank, Wasily Family Foundation, and F.M. Kirby Foundation to build out the CSHL organoid facility,鈥� said Tuveson. 鈥淭he Lustgarten Foundation and SU2C have been crucial supporters of organoid technology in pancreas cancer research.鈥�
Written by: Dagnia Zeidlickis, Vice President, Communications | [email protected] | 516-367-8455