Abstract 157: Patient in the lab: Down-scaling patient-derived organoid screening for diagnostic purposes

Abstract

Abstract Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third leading cause of cancer and cancer-related death. A large fraction of the CRC patients diagnosed with de novo metastatic disease do not benefit from standard of care and experience substantial side effects. Therefore, there is an urgent need for preclinical models that help predict patient response in the clinic. Patient-derived organoids (PDOs or HUB Organoids®) represent a significant breakthrough as preclinical models as they are directly established from patient tissue and faithfully recapitulate patient disease. HUB Organoid Technology can already be applied to preclinical drug screening, however, to provide direct patient benefit the turnaround time between patient diagnosis and PDO-based results must be shortened. In collaboration with Yamaha Motor, the Yamaha CELL HANDLERTM has been validated to automatically pick-and-place with high accuracy a significantly reduced number of organoids per screening plate, compared to standard procedures. In addition, an image-based readout was developed that enables a precise quantification of organoid number ensuring high assay quality. Organoid responses to chemotherapy and targeted agents were validated using this newly automated system, confirming comparable PDO-patient drug sensitivity profiles, and known drug responses based on genetic dependencies. In summary we describe the development of an automated workflow that combines patient-representative HUB Organoids and state-of-the-art robotics by Yamaha CELL HANDLER. This workflow down-scales the number of organoids needed per screening well and allows to efficiently predict patient response, thereby reducing the diagnostic turnaround time and increasing patient benefits. Citation Format: Esmee Koedoot, Inez van Weersch, Gakuro Harada, Masahiko Watanabe, Hamdy Warda, Hideaki Kyan, Yasmine Abouleila, Takahiko Kumagai, Yuichi Hikichi, René Overmeer, Jeanine Roodhart, Kiyotaka Matsuno, Carla Verissimo, Sylvia F. Boj. Patient in the lab: Down-scaling patient-derived organoid screening for diagnostic purposes [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 157.