Abstract: We often about cancer research, new drugs, survival curves, and statistics. But real breakthroughs sometimes begin with a scientist lying awake at 3am, thinking about a dish of cells in a lab. That’s exactly where this story opens. Dr. Hossein Jahedi, a researcher at the University of Auckland, is pioneering New Zealand’s first lung tumour organoid biobank. His work revolves around growing mini-tumours organoids built from real patient biopsy samples to test multiple drugs in a controlled lab setting before a patient ever receives them. Each organoid, roughly the size of a grain of sand, mirrors the genetics and behavior of the original tumour. This allows treatment responses to be analyzed within 2–3 weeks, shifting the process from clinical guesswork to data-backed precision.
While lung cancer makes up only about 6–7% of new cancer cases in New Zealand, it remains the country’s single biggest cancer killer. The burden is even heavier for Māori and Pacific communities, who are nearly three times more likely to die from it and remain under-represented in global research models. Jahedi’s biobank aims to close that gap by co-designing culturally safe protocols with community health organizations, ensuring tissue collection, storage, usage, and governance are ethical, inclusive, and patient-first. Inspired by Dr. Emma Nolan’s breast cancer organoid library (built since 2022), the project plans to grow 10–20 lung cancer organoids in the next 18 months. The larger vision? Helping oncologists make better, patient-specific treatment decisions in multidisciplinary clinical meetings, reducing side effects, improving quality of life, and even lowering long-term treatment costs.
Explore the full article here: https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360916968/growing-cancer-fight-it-inside-nzs-first-lung-tumour-biobank
