An organoid model for primary liver cancer

Novel approaches to detect and treat hepatocellular carcinoma are required to extend the number of quality life years for patients. Despite the use of some immunotherapies for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma, it is unpredictable as to who will respond to this therapy. Adult liver-derived hepatocyte organoids promise to overcome the limitations of traditional 2D cell cultures for drug screening against diseases that affect the liver. The technique has been used to derive organoids from hepatocellular carcinoma tissue. This makes hepatocellular carcinoma organoids ideal, to study the diversity between patients and the individual’s response to anti-cancer therapies.

About the speaker: Julie Nigro is a Research Scientist in Professor Kumar Visvanathan’s laboratory where she leads the human liver organoids project. Julie trained at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and received her doctorate from Monash University. Julie pursued post-doctoral training at the Cleveland Clinic with Dr Vincent Hascall. This enabled her to identify molecules that modify proteoglycans in human and rodent cultures. Prior to joining Prof Visvanathan’s laboratory, Julie was at the CSIRO for 10 years where she worked on two projects; 1) human stem cell biomanufacturing and 2) novel therapies to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

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