Abstract

Next Generation Cancer Models in Precision Medicine

M. Laura Martin, Director of ex vivo Models, Englander Institute for Precision Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine

Precision medicine aims to match individual patients with the best treatment based on the patients’ tumors biologic and molecular characteristics. As part of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, the Tumor Organoid Platform is an active program focused on the development of Next Generation Cancer Models (NGCMs) derived from metastatic and primary anatomic sites obtained through biopsies, surgical resections and rapid autopsy procedures. In this setting, we are able to extend our personalized medicine program to include high throughput drug screening, which can be validated through genomic sequencing and both in vivo and in vitro models. To date we have established more than a 100 NGCMs, spanning a range of 11 primary tumor types (colorectal, breast, lung, stomach, esophagus, ovary, endometrium, pancreas, kidney, bladder and prostate) that can be used for a variety of experiments. A new NGCM is successfully established when it has been expanded up to passage 5 and has been able to be biobanked. At P5, they are subjected to tumor verification assays such as Whole Exome Sequencing, RNA sequencing and immunohistochemistry. Our recently acquired high throughput drug screening (HTDS) platform is an integrative robotic system with capabilities such as high content imaging and endpoint reads. We are currently validating image-based cell viability measurements using our NGCMs compared with the traditionally used endpoint measurement of ATP luminescence.