Resources

organoid service platforms

Developing platforms or centers that create organoids on demand allow researchers to study biology closer to physiological conditions and it contributes toward personalized medicine.

New models to study tissue homeostasis and tumorigenesis

Understanding of mammalian biology at the tissue level and studying organ development and how they change during disease state in humans has been difficult due to ethical concerns and inaccessibility of sample. Conventional monolayer cell cultures, derived from human tissue have been used for decades to create experimental tools to study basic and cancer biology. Unfortunately, these cell lines are transformed and acquire irrelevant mutations overtime that do not reflect the biological characteristics of the tissue of origin. Moreover, these cultures are two-dimensional and do not mimic the tissue architecture and the cellular heterogeneity present in the tissue or the tumor of origin. An alternative to model cancer has been to put human tumors growing into mice creating ‘’patient-derived xenograft’’ but the absence of the immune system in these models and the cross-species difference between human tumor cells and the mouse environment has limitation in the interpretation of the results. Furthermore, these models are expensive and time-consuming.

Advances in developmental and stem cell biology has allowed to decipher the growth factors and signaling pathways necessary for a stem cell to receive proper environmental conditions to differentiate and arrange themselves to form a structure with similar characteristics of the tissue of origin in vitro. These three-dimensional (3D) structures called ‘’organoids’’ display similar functional properties of the tissue of origin including the genetic and the cellular heterogeneity, making them highly valuable tools to study tissue homeostasis and tumorigenesis.

Developing platforms or centers that create organoids on demand allow researchers to study biology closer to physiological conditions and it contributes toward personalized medicine. These platforms represent a first-in-class physiological platform for research on living disease tissue.

ANTICIPE laboratory (France)

ORGAPRED

Predictive tumoroid platform

This platform is localized in Caen at the ANTICIPE laboratory and is directed by Dr. Laurent Poulain and Dr. Louis-Bastien Weiswald. ORGAPRED produces organoid derived from ovarian cancers, also called ‘’tumoroid’’. The aim of the platform is to use tumor organoids for research and predicting response to treatment. One of their final goals is to characterize non-responsive patients within few weeks.

Canther laboratory (France)

ORGARES

Specialized in therapeutic resistance

This platform is localized in Lille at the Canther laboratory and directed by Dr. Audrey Vincent. The platform is specialized in gastro-esophageal, pancreas, colon cancer and is specialized in therapeutic resistance.

PrEclinical and TRAnslational Neuro-Oncology Research Network (France)

PETRA network

PETRA »TECH » platform

PETRA »TECH » is the technical platform of the PETRA network which aims to structure neuro-oncology in the South Region (Action structurante Canceropôle PACA 2023).

This platform is specialized in preclinical models of brain tumors and is localized on 2 sites, in Marseille for the study of the tumor microenvironment (scientific manager: Dr. Aurélie Tchoghandjian), and in Nice for the study of cancer stem cells (scientific manager: Dr. Thierry Virolle). Both sites offer their respective expertise in 3D human preclinical models (explants, spheroids, tumoroids, organoids, organotypic cultures) and animal models (xenografts, syngeneic models, tumor resection models), with the aim to translate as fast as possible the results from bench to patients’ bedside.

Institute for Research on Cancer and Aging (France)

3D-Hub-S

Screening platform in cancerology

In drug discovery programs, multicellular spheroids have emerged as powerful tools to bridge the gap between in vitro cell culture models and in vivo tissues. 3D tumor cultures are a promising tool for in vitro rebuilding the in vivo behaviour of cancer cells for the development and validation of anti-tumor therapies.

Yet, in vitro models capable to realistically mimic the complex ecosystem of solid tumors is an unmet need. In solid cancer mutual interactions between the epithelial transformed cancer cells and their surrounding partners, (including stromal non-transformed cells; carcinoma-associated fibroblasts, endothelial cells, adipocytes, pericytes, innate and adaptive immune cells) embedded within a complex extracellular matrix (ECM), favour tumor development, metastatic spreading and resistance to chemotherapeutic treatments. Therefore, the development of 3D multicellular spheroids embedded in a collagen rich matrix in vitro would significantly improve the early phase of drug discovery in preclinical cancer research.

The 3D-Hub-S platform is localized in Nice at the IRCAN and is directed by Dr. Gaggioli. The 3D-Hub-S platform can perform drugs screening for novel anti-cancer therapies

Cincinnati’s Children (United States)

Center for Stem Cell & Organoid Medicine (CuSTOM)

Platform for drug screening and personalized regenerative medicine.

The CuSTOM platform is localized in Cincinnati, OHIO, USA at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and is directed by Dr. Aaron Zorn and Dr. James Wells.

Specialized in organoids made from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), this platform establishes GI organoids (esophagus, fundus, antrum, duodenum and colon) and pancreatic organoids and thereby offers possibilities for accelerating discovery and facilitating bench-to-bedside translation of organoid technology.

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