Researchers led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and collaborating institutions have developed nearly 700 new cancer models derived directly from patient tumors, according to reporting published by MIT. The tissue models represent 25 different cancer types and are now available to scientists globally to support drug discovery.
Published in Nature, the effort marks the culmination of a 10-year initiative funded by the National Cancer Institute and the United Kingdom's Wellcome Trust. Hospitals in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands collected more than 2,700 tumor samples from consenting patients. Technical teams successfully converted roughly one-third of those samples into cell lines that survive indefinitely in laboratory settings.
Developing 3D Organoids
Most of the new models exist as organoids—three-dimensional cell cultures grown in specialized media with gelatin-like scaffolding. Unlike traditional single-layer cell lines developed since the 1950s, organoids mimic the 3D architecture, RNA expression, genomic sequences, and epigenomic modifications of original patient tumors. Establishing each model required up to one year.
The project, known as the Human Cancer Models Initiative, was established in 2016 following the Cancer Genome Atlas project. While earlier repositories contained roughly 1,000 cell lines primarily derived from European and Southeast Asian patients, the new collection includes 150 rare tumor types, such as gallbladder and small intestine cancers, alongside common lung, liver, and pancreatic cancers.
Data Access and Profiling
All models have been deposited at the American Type Culture Collection for public distribution. Each entry includes clinical data from the original patient, including inherited germline mutations and previous cancer treatment history.
Two companion studies published in Nature detailed further profiling of the repository. Broad Institute researchers screened more than 300 of the models using high-throughput genome and RNA sequencing, applying CRISPR loss-of-function screens to over 100 models to identify drug vulnerabilities for the Cancer Dependency Map. Additionally, researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute characterized 256 organoids developed through the initiative.
