Utilising novel organoid perturbation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms, the aim is to create a comprehensive dataset to fuel foundational drug discovery models and cancer research.
The Wellcome Sanger Institute, Parse Biosciences and the Computational Health Center at Helmholtz Munich announce today (12 June) a collaboration to build the foundation of a single cell atlas, focused on understanding and elucidating cancer plasticity in response to therapies. The collaboration will catalyse an ambitious future phase to develop a cancer plasticity atlas encompassing hundreds of millions of cells.
Utilising novel organoid perturbation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms, the aim is to create a comprehensive dataset to fuel foundational drug discovery models and cancer research.
Dr Mathew Garnett, Group Leader at the Sanger Institute, and Professor Fabian Theis, Director of the Computational Health Center at Helmholtz Munich and Associate Faculty at the Sanger Institute, will be the principal investigators in the collaboration.
Mathew’s research team has generated novel 3D organoid cultures that serve as highly scalable and functional cancer models with the ability to capture hallmarks of patient tumours. The team will use vast numbers of these tumour organoids – mini tumours in a dish – as a model to better understand cancer mechanisms of plasticity and adaptability in response to treatments.
We have developed a transformational platform to enable both large-scale organoid screening and the downstream data generation and analysis which has the potential to redefine our understanding of therapeutic responses in cancer. We aim to develop a community that brings the best expertise from academia and industry to progress the project. Studies of this magnitude are critical to the development of foundational models to better help us understand cancer progression and bring much needed advancement in the field.”
Dr Mathew Garnett, Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and collaboration co-lead
Credit: The Welcome Sanga Institute