This project seeks to establish a colorectal cancer organoid avatar bio-bank from an ethnically and genetically diverse patient population that is approximately 40% African American. We will make use of discarded, de-identified surgical specimens to establish 3-dimensional cultures of tumor and matched normal colon stem cells (organoids). Organoid avatars will be characterized by 1) WNT, EGF, and TGFB (in) dependence 2) presence of somatic mutations in colon cancer genes, 3) percent African ancestry, 4) measure IC50s for select drugs from the Approved Oncology Drugs panel, and 5) create isogenic tumor organoids with select colon cancer driver gene mutations suitable for drug screening efforts. This work will create organoid lines, which will be used to advance our understanding of basic mechanisms of cancer health disparities among African Americans.
