Abstract

Next-Generation Cancer Models from the Human Cancer Models Initiative

James Clinton, Senior Scientist, American Type Culture Collection (ATCC)

ATCC is actively pursuing the development of improved in vitro models as part of its mission to support the scientific community. This desire to support innovative in vitro model development led to ATCC’s involvement in the Human Cancer Models Initiative (HCMI), an international collaborative effort to generate 1000 new human cancer models. This initiative was born out of a recognition that that currently available preclinical cancer models are often inadequate for the study of cancer biology, drug discovery, personalized therapeutics, and biomarker identification. This can be attributed to an insufficient diversity of available models, as well as the realization that existing models often lack biological and genetic relevance to tumors in vivo. To address these deficiencies, advanced culture methods, including three-dimensional organoids, are being utilized to generate novel primary tissue-derived models from human cancers that are underrepresented by existing cell lines. Here we provide an overview of the HCMI, and of the technologies driving the development of these “next-generation” models that hold promise to transform in vitro cancer research.