Join us for an online engagement event on the 9th November 3-5pm where we will be gathering engineers and physical scientists alongside cancer researchers to discuss and develop new approaches to address challenges associated with organoids.

Online Engagement Event, 9^th November 3-5pm

 

The CRUK Convergence Science Centre, as part of its Multidisciplinary Discovery Research Theme, has selected cancer organoid models as an opportunity area for the application of engineering and physical sciences expertise to develop solutions to cancer research problems. Cancer organoids are self-organising 3D cell cultures derived from patient samples that retain the genetic, phenotypic and behavioural traits of their parent tumours. They represent a significant advance in our ability to model tumours in vitro but there are still many opportunities to improve these models and their potential applications.

 

We have consulted with cancer researchers who either use or would like to use organoids in their research to pinpoint current bottlenecks and have selected four priority areas for intervention. These are:

1.     Successful derivation of new organoid lines and their long-term stability and reproducibility

2.     Enhancement of organoid lines to better recapitulate the tumour microenvironment and the interaction between tumours and other external factors

3.     Measuring physical/chemical parameters and the outputs of experimental perturbations in live organoid cultures

4.     Enhancing the scale and throughput of organoid culture experiments and the resultant data analysis requirements

 

We would like to invite you to attend an online engagement event on the 9^th November to gather together engineers and physical scientists alongside cancer researchers to discuss and develop new approaches to address the challenges we have identified. We hope this will act as a catalyst for the establishment of new collaborative cross-institutional teams which we will support, either through funding opportunities, or research infrastructure or assistance with external funding applications.

 

The event will start with invited introductory talks for each of the priority areas and will be followed by 3 slide/3 min lightning talks to introduce specific problems or highlight technology solutions.

 

If you would like to attend please email icr-imperial-convergence.centre@imperial.ac.uk