Self-assembling matrixes to recreate the colorectal tumour niche (iCASE project with AZ)

患者衍生的体内人类癌症模型已经成为现实，但它们的周转时间对于临床应用来说是不够的。因此，迫切需要量身定制的、能真实再现体内肿瘤生物学的体外模型。该项目旨在优化体外3D有机物培养，从而能够研究结直肠癌的复杂性和药物反应的有效性。为此，我们将使用患者衍生的有机化合物来优化一种新的基于多肽的组装平台，该平台将代表着假定的抗癌药物如何在体外进行测试的一步改变。从长远来看，该项目的成果可能有助于提高癌症患者的存活率。

Patient-derived in vivo models of human cancer have become a reality, yet their turnaround time is inadequate for clinical applications. Therefore, tailored ex vivo models that faithfully recapitulate in vivo tumour biology are urgently needed. This project aims to optimize an in vitro 3D organoid culture that would enable the study of the complexity of colorectal cancer and the effectiveness to drug response. To that end, we will use patient-derived organoids to optimize a novel peptide-based assembly platform that will represent a step-change in how putative anticancer drugs can be tested in vitro. In the long-term the outcome of this project may help to improve cancer patient's survival.