{"id":29623,"date":"2025-11-06T09:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T01:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/?post_type=media-release&#038;p=29623"},"modified":"2025-11-06T15:17:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T07:17:23","slug":"tiny-lab-grown-tumours-to-help-fight-liver-cancer-as-part-of-new-fellowship","status":"publish","type":"media-release","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/tiny-lab-grown-tumours-to-help-fight-liver-cancer-as-part-of-new-fellowship\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny lab-grown tumours to help fight liver cancer as part of new Fellowship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Tiny, laboratory-created tumours will be grown to help fight liver cancer, as part of new Curtin research funded by the prestigious WA Near-Miss Awards (WANMA) Emerging Leaders 2025-26 Fellowship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/staffportal.curtin.edu.au\/staff\/profile\/view\/ben-dwyer-2bcdbc76\/\">Dr Ben Dwyer<\/a>, a Senior Research Fellow in the Curtin Medical Research Institute (<a href=\"https:\/\/research.curtin.edu.au\/curtinmri\/\">Curtin MRI<\/a>) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/about\/learning-teaching\/health-sciences\/curtin-medical-school\/\">Curtin Medical School<\/a>, has been awarded almost $1 million in funding to investigate \u2018patient-derived tumour organoids\u2019, which involves a small sample of tumour tissue being placed into special growth conditions, allowing the cells to organise themselves into a miniature version of the tumour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tiny lab-grown tumours to help fight liver cancer, thanks to $1 million grant\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zqEnTl_e0To?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>These mini tumours keep many of the features of a patient\u2019s real cancer, including how the cells grow, interact and respond to treatments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While current organoids don\u2019t always behave exactly like real tumours, Dr Dwyer said his project would offer researchers the opportunity to simulate a more accurate version of a tumour to test possible new treatments and provide functional data to inform treatment decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBy growing miniature versions of a patient\u2019s cancer in the lab, we can see how it reacts to different drugs before giving them to the patient,\u201d Dr Dwyer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like we are creating a detailed scale model of a building: it\u2019s not the full structure, but it\u2019s accurate enough to study and test ideas without risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThrough collaboration with the Perkins Cancer Biobank and the Liver Cancer Collaborative, this project aims to make the organoids more accurate by optimising the conditions they are grown in and adding the patient\u2019s own immune cells to see how they interact. We will use these optimised models to screen for therapeutic targets to improve current therapies and develop new ones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Dwyer said it was particularly important for liver cancer treatments to be developed given people diagnosed with liver cancer are given just a 23 per cent chance of surviving at least five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLiver cancer is often diagnosed late, when surgery is no longer an option and treatments have limited success,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo being able to better predict which treatments will or won\u2019t work for each individual \u2013 and doing it quickly \u2013 is critical.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Dwyer was named a WA Near-Miss Awards (WANMA) Emerging Leaders 2025-26 Fellow for being one of the two top-ranked mid-career researchers in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It comes after Curtin won $500,000 from the Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund \u2013 Enabling Scheme in 2024 to create the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/miniature-lab-created-human-organs-to-fast-track-new-disease-treatments\/\">Western Australian Organoid Innovation Hub<\/a>&nbsp;within Curtin MRI and builds on the Cancer Research Trust-funded Liver Cancer Collaborative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Curtin Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research <a href=\"https:\/\/staffportal.curtin.edu.au\/staff\/profile\/view\/melinda-fitzgerald-e380f4d6\/\">Professor Melinda Fitzgerald<\/a> said the acknowledgment was further evidence of the University\u2019s growing reputation in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is a highly prestigious Fellowship and the Curtin community wholeheartedly congratulates Ben on his achievement,\u201d Professor Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis project has the potential to save time, money and, most importantly, lives \u2013 by ensuring the treatments making it to patients are the ones most likely to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis will build significantly on Curtin\u2019s already extensive expertise in cancer research and personalised medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information about the WANMA Emerging Leaders 2025-26 Fellowship, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/fhrifund.health.wa.gov.au\/News-and-Events\/2025\/08\/12\/Funding-awarded-to-strengthen-WA-early-and-mid-career-researchers-national-success\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tiny, laboratory-created tumours will be grown to help fight liver cancer, as part of new 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Jeremic"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/29623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/29623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29623"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=29623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}