The dissemination, exploitation, and communication activities are led by MIL (previously known as LVBT). The Innovation Manager Dr. Julia Ide from MIL is in charge of this work package. During this reporting period, the IPR overview has been regularly updated with the input from the consortium. Additionally, a standardization workshop has been held to familiarize all partners of the consortium with relevant standards and guidelines for REAP (D9.5). In order to increase the exploitation potential, the dissemination and exploitation plan was updated to reflect the current status and knowledge of the project (D9.10). All required deliverables of WP9 have been submitted.
The biology and chemistry related tasks are performed by the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) of MUW, AIT, and USC in WP2 and WP3. WP2 completed task T2.1 “in vitro model of drug induced tumor relapse: repopulation assay” with all its milestones and deliverables. This task included the transcriptional profiling of DTP cells of the model, which had high exploitation power in the selection of the NP targeting strategy. In addition, in vitro biocompatibility testing of the NPs on DTP cells within the frame of this task was an essential feasibility test. In task T2.2 “Establishment of in vitro 3D mammary organoids“, establishment and validation of organoids from metastatic mammary tumors was completed, they will be utilized in whole-body course scan OC-PAT settings of WP8. In addition, cancer associated fibroblast (CAF) cell lines derived from the tumor models have been established, which will contribute to the complex in vitro 3D structures for drug analysis and imaging. Although task T2.3 “Genetic engineering of organoids“, has a slight delay, the established CAFs were successfully engineered to express reporters with complementary fluorescence with the matched organoids, which will allow the simultaneous detection of tumor cells and CAFs via 2-photon microscopy. In tasks T2.4 and 2.5 the “in vitro tumor organoid” and the “in vivo organoid-derived transplantation models”, the complete experimental pipeline is established and optimized, including the type of drugs, the applied concentrations and timings, the expected timings of the drug-induced phenotypic stages (DTP/MRD and repopulation/relapse). The missing step shared for both tasks is the validation of protocols with the final engineered organoids that will allow PAI. In addition, in T2.4 we are optimizing the CAF-organoid co-culture conditions and in T2.5 upon obtaining the ethical approval the live-animal implantation and longitudinal testing of the optical window will be performed.
