Head Assay Development and Automation Hubrecht Organoid Technology (HUB), Utrecht, Netherlands
Adult epithelial stem cell-derived organoids (Sato et al. Nature 2009, 2011), or HUB Organoids™, are proving to be a major breakthrough in preclinical modelling of human diseases. These patient-derived models fundamentally change the way drug discovery and development can be performed as they can be used as patient avatars in the lab to test multiple treatments in parallel and determine which treatment would benefit a patient the most.
Multiple publications have shown that the pharmacological response of patient-derived organoids (PDOs) in vitro correlates with clinical response (Vlachogiannis et al. Science 2018, Yao et al. Cell 2020). However, these correlations are based on small cohorts of models and lacks the statistical strength needed to ensure acceptance of organoids as clinical diagnostic tools by governing agencies. Additionally, a faster workflow from initial patient diagnosis and biopsy to diagnostic test result is still required to maximize the benefits from PDOs and achieve the best clinical outcome.
HUB is collaborating with Yamaha Motor to overcome these challenges and improve the overall diagnostic process for patient benefit. This collaboration aims at demonstrating a correlation of treatment response between HUB Organoids in the lab and patients in the clinic using a larger cohort of models. Additionally, the Yamaha CELL HANDLER™ will be validated as a tool to automize and improve the accuracy of the pick-and-place process of organoids, resulting in faster timelines and an overall saving in reagents usage. Together, the personalized approach offered by HUB Organoid Technology combined with improved operational efficiency by the Yamaha CELL HANDLER will enable accurate and fast prediction of treatment response to improve clinical outcome.
