The Foundation is excited to share an update from Dr. Guillermo Gomez, Head of the Tissue Architecture and Organ Function Laboratory of the Centre for Cancer Biology at University of South Australia. Dr. Gomez’s research is funded by the Foundation through a 2018 Infrastructure Grant, worth $400,000.
Cancer cell invading the surrounding healthy tissue, is a central characteristic of malignant brain tumours, and is significantly correlated with a poor patient prognosis. This cellular invasion is largely the result of the interaction between tumour cells and healthy stroma cells leading to molecular changes that occur in the immediate area around the tumour – “the tumour microenvironment”. Currently, there is no effective therapeutic target to stop this process and/or control the evolution of the tumour microenvironment. Dr. Gomez and his team, in collaboration with neurosurgeons and clinical oncologists, have been leading a project to use patient-derived tumour organoids to understand the process of cancer cell invasion, and the potential drugs that can stop it. Organoids are essentially ‘mini organs’, derived from biopsy samples that recapitulate the architecture and cellular composition of the tumour of which these were derived, including the presence of immune cells and vasculature; the most critical tumour microenvironment components in brain tumours.
In their latest update, Dr. Gomez shared how he and his team have employed organoid technology to study tumour samples taken from patients to identify targets for therapy. They have been able to culture and expand brain tumour biopsies as tumour explants organoids and perform drug-screenings using advanced image-processing techniques. By doing so, Dr. Gomez and his team have been able to, for the first time, learn from the patient’s tumour and perform functional experiments in a clinically relevant experimental model (brain tumour explant organoids). This has allowed a comprehensive, preclinical evaluation of new targets that may translate into the clinic.
Dr. Gomez stated:
“Thanks to this grant from Cure Brain Cancer Foundation, we have developed a novel infrastructure that provides solid ground for cutting-edge translational research. Previously, preclinical studies were performed in cultured immortalised cell lines or xenografts that lack the heterogeneity and cellular composition of tumours in patients. We now provide a new patient-derived tumour explants platform and match spatial-omics data that, together with new artificial intelligence pipelines, permit the investigation of new targets and their functional validation using clinically relevant tumour material and data.”
Dr. Gomez and his team have gained significant momentum in developing better and more personalised approaches for brain cancer treatment and are now in a favourable position to start translation into clinical practice.
