Build laboratory models of the organs cancer spreads to
Cancer usually kills by spreading to bone, liver, lung or brain. Almost all laboratory models grow tumours under the skin instead, where the surroundings are nothing like those organs.
Subcutaneous xenografts remain the default despite being the least relevant site. Engineered bone marrow niches, liver-on-chip with resident macrophages, and perfused lung and brain models can be seeded with patient tumour cells to study colonisation, dormancy and organ-specific drug response. Organ-specific microenvironments determine both seeding and treatment sensitivity.
- Preclinical models that do not predict people · Nine in ten cancer drugs that work in mice fail in humans. Our models are the reason.
- Metastasis is understood least and studied last · Metastasis causes about nine in ten cancer deaths but gets a small fraction of research money and almost no trials of its own.
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not linked directly; found by shared links- IdeaMake in vivo metastasis screens a required step in drug discovery
Shares Patient-derived xenografts, Patient-derived organoids, Metastasis is understood least and studied last, Preclinical models that do not predict people.
- IdeaBarcode patient-derived tumours to watch which clones win under each drug
Shares Patient-derived xenografts, Patient-derived organoids, Preclinical models that do not predict people.
- IdeaGrow models from tumour cells in the blood when a biopsy is impossible
Shares Patient-derived xenografts, Patient-derived organoids, Preclinical models that do not predict people.
- IdeaScore every model system on how well it predicted real trial results
Shares Patient-derived xenografts, Patient-derived organoids, Preclinical models that do not predict people.
- IdeaGrow blood-borne tumour cells to test drugs on the cells that actually spread
Shares Patient-derived xenografts, Patient-derived organoids, Metastasis is understood least and studied last, Preclinical models that do not predict people.
- IdeaPick the laboratory model that matches the patient, not the one to hand
Shares Patient-derived xenografts, Patient-derived organoids, Preclinical models that do not predict people.
- IdeaAn independent replication institute that re-tests key preclinical cancer findings before trials
Shares Patient-derived xenografts, Patient-derived organoids.
- IdeaAn open organoid bank for cancers too rare to have models
Shares Patient-derived xenografts, Patient-derived organoids, Preclinical models that do not predict people.