NSW Organoid Innovation Centre launches at Sydney

The new NSW Organoid Innovation Centre (NSWOIC) will provide reliable and reproducible access to stem cell and organoid cultures for researchers in the academic and commercial sectors.

Organoids, sometimes referred to as “mini organs in a dish” are self-organising clusters of cells derived from human stem cells. They allow for the development and testing of new medicines and treatments outside the human body.

Launched on Wednesday 26 March, NSWOIC is a multi-institutional initiative that will make organoid production and analysis accessible to researchers across NSW and Australia. Combining stem cell techniques with robotics and AI technology, its facilities provide organoids for applications including drug discovery, personalised medicine and disease modelling.

Funding of $2.5 million for the centre was delivered by the NSW Government through the Emerging Industry Infrastructure Fund. The University of Sydney will invest an additional $1.3 million in the centre, a collaboration with the University of NSW and the Children’s Medical Research Institute at Westmead.

Director of the Centre for Drug Discovery Innovation and 2024 AFR Research Commercialisation joint winner Professor Michael Kassiou is the academic lead of the centre. He said: “Organoid technology bridges the gap between initial discovery and testing directly in humans, with the potential to rapidly accelerate relevant drugs to treat disease.”

Conventional drug discovery often uses animal surrogates for testing. However, they are not always reliable models for how drugs work in humans. Organoid cells can be taken from a patient’s body to create clinically relevant organic testing sites in the lab.

“We can run our database of existing drug types against the organoid cells in the laboratory. This gives us a much better chance of success in drug discovery, bypassing several steps in traditional drug design,” Professor Kassiou said.

“This new approach is all about targeting processes that are clinically relevant to the disease you are investigating,” he said.

The CMRI node at Westmead will be led by Dr Anai Gonzalez Cordero and the NSWOIC node at UNSW will be led by Dr Shafagh Waters. These two nodes will focus on producing the stem cells and organoids needed by the centre.

University of Sydney staff working with Professor Kassiou at the new centre include: Professor Glenda Halliday, Professor Wojciech Chrzanowski and Professor Gemma Figtree, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health; and Professor Greg Neely from the Faculty of Science.

NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer, Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte opened the facility for the NSW Government. Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Julie Cairney welcomed the opening of on behalf of the University.

The University of Sydney node is located within Sydney Analytical Drug Discovery lab spaces within the refurbished Molecular Bioscience building (G08) and will provide support to access and screen reliable and reproducible stem cell and organoid cultures.

Main image (from right): Professor Michael Kassiou, Associate Professor Anai Gonzalez-Cordero, Associate Professor Renee Whan (UNSW), and NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte.