Transformational gift will boost organoid research
The Farmer Family Foundation has pledged $5 million to advance the pioneering research being conducted in the Center for Stem Cell and Organoid Medicine (CuSTOM) at Cincinnati Children’s. This instrumental investment will advance efforts to personalize medicine through organoid technology.
“The organoid work being done at Cincinnati Children’s is unlike anything we’ve seen anywhere in the nation. It has the potential to completely transform care for children needing organ transplants,” says Amy Joseph, trustee, Farmer Family Foundation.
The Farmer Family Foundation helped launch the organoid center last year with a pilot grant to Michael Helmrath, MD, clinical translation director, CuSTOM. This latest $5 million commitment to the research is a challenge grant, and the medical center has five years to match the gift with investments from other donors.
“We want to encourage others to get involved in speeding up this discovery – that’s why we made our gift a challenge grant,” explains Joseph. “Working together, we can benefit kids sooner.”
Seven years ago, Cincinnati Children’s scientists first used pluripotent stem cells to mimic natural human development and grow working human intestines in a lab. Today, our doctors can bioengineer the small intestine, colon, stomach and mini livers. Our scientists are also working to bioengineer human esophageal, kidney and lung tissues to study human development and disease.
“Organoid technology gives researchers a first-in-class platform for laboratory research on living diseased tissue, which cannot be done on patients,” says Aaron Zorn, PhD, director, CuSTOM. “It can provide human modeling systems in a petri dish for developing and testing drugs before expensive clinical trials.”
Peggy Hostetter, MD, chair, Research Foundation, believes the medical center is at a pivotal point in the innovation. “With the convergence of transformative breakthroughs in our organ-generation technology and generous supporters, like the Farmer Foundation, we are poised to speed up the translation cycle so children can benefit more quickly.”
The center’s goal is to use healthy, genetically matched tissues for regenerative medicine and eventually transplant. This organ-generation technology has the potential to address a shortage of organs available for transplantation.
