An open model bank for the rare tumours nobody has models for
You cannot study a cancer without a laboratory model of it, and most rare cancers have none. A funded bank that makes and shares models would unlock research.
Rare tumour research stalls because there is no cell line, organoid or xenograft to work with, and individual laboratories cannot justify the cost of derivation for a disease they may study once. A central derivation facility taking fresh surgical material from a referral network, generating organoids and xenografts, characterising them and distributing them openly on a cost-recovery basis would remove the barrier for hundreds of diseases at once.
- Rare and paediatric cancers without markets · Taken together rare cancers are a fifth of all cancers, but each one alone is too small for a company to invest in.
- Preclinical models that do not predict people · Nine in ten cancer drugs that work in mice fail in humans. Our models are the reason.
- The valley of death between lab and product · Most academic discoveries die before anyone tests them in people because nobody funds the middle step.
Pages like this
not linked directly; found by shared links- IdeaMake in vivo metastasis screens a required step in drug discovery
Shares Cancer Models (PDCM Finder) & HCMI, DepMap (Cancer Dependency Map), Patient-derived xenografts, Patient-derived organoids.
- IdeaA funded organoid and PDX panel as the go/no-go gate before IND-enabling money
Shares Cancer Models (PDCM Finder) & HCMI, Patient-derived xenografts, Functional (ex vivo) drug testing, 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, Biliary tract cancer (cholangiocarcinoma).
- IdeaA public atlas of drug-pair responses across a thousand patient-derived organoids
Shares Cancer Models (PDCM Finder) & HCMI, DepMap (Cancer Dependency Map), Functional (ex vivo) drug testing, Patient-derived organoids.
- IdeaTest drugs on the patient's own cancer cells when there is no trial to join
Shares Patient-derived xenografts, Functional (ex vivo) drug testing, Patient-derived organoids, Preclinical models that do not predict people.
- IdeaTrial-in-a-box: a preconfigured protocol kit any hospital can open for a rare cancer
Shares Mesothelioma, Biliary tract cancer (cholangiocarcinoma), Neuroendocrine tumours, Rare and paediatric cancers without markets.
- IdeaOne global rare cancer network with n-of-1 and Bayesian trial frameworks
Shares Mesothelioma, Biliary tract cancer (cholangiocarcinoma), Neuroendocrine tumours, Rare and paediatric cancers without markets.
- IdeaShared reference organoid and PDX panels that every lab can test against
Shares Cancer Models (PDCM Finder) & HCMI, Patient-derived xenografts, Patient-derived organoids, Preclinical models that do not predict people.