At UC San Diego Health, Associate Project Scientist, Herve Tiriac, is developing 3D organoids using adult pancreatic tissues. On today’s podcast, he shares the following: What portion of the pancreas is modeled in studying pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma What happens when different cell types are cultured together How models can be created using only the tissue from fine needle biopsies What types of variation are present in pancreatic tumors Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is not only extremely lethal, but under-researched. For this reason, in addition to other professional and personal motivators, Herve Tiriac, PhD, aims to develop a better understanding of this type of cancer by using patient-derived tumor organoids. With the goal of directing research findings toward the development of precision medicine technology, he is hopeful about the possibility of creating significant improvements in the treatment of this form of pancreatic cancer. In addition to discussing the emergence of organoid-based research, the process being carried out in his lab, and the problem of fungi and/or yeast overgrowth in tumor organoids, Tiriac discusses the directions his research will take in the coming years, which include addressing the clinical challenge of treatment resistance and recurrence of disease, creating improved methods for tumor organoid development, and understanding how to generate models for other cell types that come from these tumors. Press play for all the details.