Fukushima Medical University aims to accelerate cancer research by contributing patient derived organoids to CancerTools.org
London – UK, Fukushima and Tokyo – Japan: CancerTools.org, the research tools arm of Cancer Research UK (CRUK), and the Fukushima Medical University (FMU) and Summit Pharmaceuticals International (SPI) today announced a new partnership to progress their shared mission of accelerating cancer research. Through this partnership, FMU has made their patient derived organoids (F-PDOs) available to the global cancer research tools community.
Progress in cancer research has always been dependent on the generosity and willingness of scientists to make their rare and unique materials accessible to their colleagues. Scientists globally will now be able to access these latest experimental models from FMU for use in disease modelling, drug development, toxicology screening and other related applications.
As part of this partnership, CancerTools.org will work with FMU and their technology transfer partner Summit Pharmaceuticals International (SPI) to bring the production of these organoids in-house and manage quality control and global distribution. These are the first primary tumour tissue – derived organoids to be part of the existing tools portfolio within CancerTools.org.
F-PDOs are well-characterized experimental models derived from patient explants with 15 different types of cancer. Expansion and differentiation of these tissues/cells produces functional “mini-organs”. Preserving similar genetic profile and morphology with source tumour tissue, F-PDOs represent a physiological and patient-specific path to assess safety and efficacy of drugs in addition to disease modelling. Their physiological nature mimics human biology, which allows them to accurately predict patient response to treatment in comparison to traditional systems.
“Our collaboration with CancerTools.org will allow us to achieve our goal of making these incredible technologies accessible to researchers in their pursuit of organoid based research. This is an exciting opportunity for FMU to demonstrate to their scientists how their research efforts can expand beyond the confines of their own lab helping to accelerate cancer research and the associated discoveries worldwide”
Motoki Takagi, Ph.D., of FMU
“At CancerTools.org we are on a mission to accelerate cancer research. Partnering with FMU and SPI allows us to demonstrate to their research community the value of the tools they are developing in their labs. On our end, organoids as experimental models are a complementary addition to the portfolio which will expand the offering and include tools that will benefit in vitro disease modelling, drug discovery and development together with safety and toxicity studies.”
Robert Bondaryk, Global Head, Research Tools, at CRUK
“This is the beginning of an exciting partnership and we look forward to working with CancerTools.org to enable the scientists from FMU effortlessly make a long-standing impact in oncology research by contributing tools to this unique and first of its kind collaborative in this field.”
Katsuya Okuyama, President & CEO of SPI
