On November 6th 2024, the Phenomics Australia Monash Organoid Program node team hosted their annual Symposium on Emerging Technologies in Organoid Research.
This year was the 4th edition of the Symposium and we were delighted to witness a growing interest for the event: 270 registrations and 229 attendees on the day (in 2023, they had 219 registrations and 159 attendees), including interstate participants coming from NSW, SA, WA, ACT and QLD.
This methods-focused symposium is a free event accessible to all, gathering students, EMCRs, group leaders, clinicians and industry partners. The objective is to share the tips and tricks of successful organoid culture establishment and discuss all the challenges, and success stories of using organoids in biomedical research. In our post-event survey, we were very pleased to see that 98% of the attendees gained valuable information on the day and 100% would like to participate in this event again next year.
One of the highlights of the day was the fantastic presentation given by the keynote speaker: Dr Karuna Ganesh, Physician-Scientist from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Institute in NYC, USA. Karuna started her talk by exposing a simple truth: primary tumours don’t kill, it’s the metastases that are deadly.
She then explained how her lab studies the metastatic process by dissecting the molecular mechanisms of metastasis development, unravelling the reprogramming pathways used by those unwanted cells to successfully invade their environment and escape most drug treatments. The audience welcomed this brilliant presentation with a lot of interest. This was an incredible opportunity to discover the results published by Karuna’s team in the international journal “Nature” the week before the Symposium (Nature, 30 Oct 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08150-0).
Earlier in the day we had great presentations on methods to generate patient-derived organoids and the use of powerful and sophisticated analytical tools for drug discovery and precision oncology. After the lunch break, the session on reproduction showcased a mix of iPSCs and patient-derived models, generated using various techniques from hand-made to bioprinting. Multiple tissue types were used to generate organoids, including placenta, testis, ovaries and endometrium. These innovative models are currently used for advancement in fertility and endometriosis treatment. We concluded the day with a session on advanced 3D models, such as assembloids and organ-on-chips, and the bio-engineering tools that make such models possible, leading the way to add more complexity to current organoid models.
The novelty this year was the addition of a poster session. They received numerous submissions and selected 22 abstracts for poster presentation. The poster evaluation committee visited and scored all the poster presentations. At the end of the day, the Phenomics Australia and Monash Organoid Program Scientific Director Dr Thierry Jardé and the Manager Dr Eglantine Balland, announced the 3 winners of the best poster presentation award. Mrs Carol Cook representing Animal-free Science Advocacy (AFSA), the sponsor of this session, was present to award their prizes to the recipients: Mr Harrison Boka, Dr Lauren Alesi, Mr Roelof Dinkelberg.
The opportunity to offer a one-day free event to the scientific community is only possible thanks to the generosity of our sponsors. The Organoid Program would like to thank Animal-Free Science Advocacy, Bio-Strategy, Corning, Integra, Merck, OLS, Revvity, Scientifix, Stem Cell Technologies and Thermo-Fisher for their long-standing support.
The Monash Organoid Program team is working on the new program and is already thinking of a bigger venue for 2025!
