Creating a Colonic Organoid Model for Studying Colorectal Cancer

Abstract

Although significant research is currently being conducted to study human cancers, the use of in vivo models is time consuming and costly. Recent findings have documented the use of mouse intestinal crypt organoids as a model system using Lgr5+ stem cells to express cancer related genes in a targeted manner. The objective of this research project is to successfully transform colonic mouse organoids with a mutant form of the K-ras oncogene. This is relevant because patients diagnosed with colon cancer often express a mutated copy of the K-ras gene within colonic tumors. Thus, the transduction of a mutant gene into colonic organoids will create an ex vivo model for studying colon cancer.