Culture Club

Over the past century, researchers have studied cancer cells growing in flat layers in Petri dishes, but they’re no substitute for the real thing. Tumours – and the tissues in which they grow – are three-dimensional structures and behave very differently in real life than in a plastic dish in the lab. In recent years, researchers have started to develop three-dimensional cell culture systems known as organoids, which recapitulate the processes of cancer growth in a more realistic way. These delicate bubbles are organoids made from the large intestine: the larger white ones are grown from cells that have been genetically engineered to carry alterations commonly found in cancer, while the small green ones are from unmodified, healthy cells. By comparing the growth of these organoids side by side under different conditions or in the presence of cancer drugs, scientists can study how bowel tumours develop and how best to treat them.

Written by Kat Arney

Kat Arney

Writer

Dr Kat Arney is an award-winning science writer, broadcaster and public speaker, and is the founder and Creative Director of First Create The Media.

Website

• Co-Culture Club: Using Organoids to Study How Cancer Grows; A winner in the 2020 Koch Institute Image Awards
• Image by Jonathan Braverman, George Eng, Daiyao Zhang and Ömer Yilmaz; Yilmaz Lab MIT
• Image courtesy of the Koch Institute Image Awards