Discovery Network on organoids in Paris

Summary of Discovery Network on organoids in Paris

In the early Months of 2012 Hans, Clevers, Mike Stratton, Jose Baselga, Matthew Meyerson, David Tuveson and Stephen Friend meet in Paris. This time Charles Sawyers (MSKCC), Adrian Harris (OxFord) and Rene Bernards (NKI) have joined the Network. Lex van Eggermont is again present to moderate the session.

In Christ College the idea of creating a living biobank of tumor cells was established. This time the discussion is more about organizing a network of research institutes that harvest, process and distribute the organoids. One of the most promising steps to take is to use the living biobank for testing drug combinations. Mikes Stratton has been very explicit about this. He wants to create a factory for testing 200 drugs in combinations in a high throughput system. David points out a number of times that we need to understand the technique better and that we need to establish soon what tumor cells can be held in organoid form.

We are converging to a small agenda: set up a scalable system for harvesting and processing organoids, determine in order what tumors to select first and creating a factory for testing drug combination in 3D with living tumor cells.