News

Over the past 15 years, organoids have transformed science and medicine. This was the sixth “Organoids Are Us” symposium – the first to be held outside Australia. As always for these symposia, there were talks on stem cells, cancer, infection and high through-put platforms, with a focus on recent advances with complex organoid models and tissue engineering.

The symposium kicked off with a welcome to Thailand by Prof Apichat Asavamongkolkul, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University.

This was followed by a tribute to Prof Tony Burgess and an introduction to the 2024 Tony Burgess Orators (TBOs), A/Prof Luke Dow and Dr Dustin Flanagan, delivered by Dr Maree Faux. Prof Tony Burgess, now retired, was a true visionary in cancer research and is accredited with conceiving and championing many initiatives, including the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre.

The opening speeches were followed by the inaugural plenary presentation, delivered by Prof Hans Clevers, who first described adult tissue stem cell-derived organoids in 2009. Prof Clevers covered the breadth of organoid technology, from tissue regeneration and stem cells, to patient-derived “serial killer T-cells” that efficiently kill tumour organoid cells.

Day One was capped off with a poster session and mixer. Doherty’s Dr Bang Tran (Vincan Lab) scored one of the poster prizes on the work he co-led with Dr Pin-Shie Quah (Deliyannis/Jackson Lab)! This work on bovine organoids was in collaboration with Prof Lachlan Coin (Doherty), who led the single cell transcriptomics aspects of the study.  

Days Two and Three of the symposium provided a smorgasbord of organoid-based research and technological advances, delivered by 17 invited speakers from 12 countries, making it a truly global event. Highlights included:

• Organoid transplantation to treat diabetes (Prof Arial Zeng, China, who was a keynote speaker).
• Exploring the boundaries of human reprogramming (Prof Jose Polo, Australia, who delivered the second keynote).
• Organoid models of infectious disease (including Dr Alexandre Grassart, France and Doherty’s A/P Abdou Hachani, who delivered a short talk, selected from abstracts).
• Diverse human organoids to model liver disease and liver cancer (including Prof Carol Man Tong, Hong Kong and Prof Winston Chan, China).
• Brain development and disease (including Prof Bhavana Muralidharan, India and Dr Steffi Long, China).
• Homeostasis and cancer (including the TBOs, Prof Owen Sansom, Scotland, Prof Nick Barker, Singapore and A/Prof Rossukon Kaewkhaw, Thailand).

On behalf of the OrU 2024 co-conveners Prof Ram DasGupta and A/Prof Somponnat Sampattavanich, a huge thanks to our sponsors, the organising committee, speakers, chairpersons, attendees and all involved at the OZO and Imari hotels. We had over 160 registrants, 18 sponsors and several media partners. Please see the website for details.

“Organoids Are Us 2025” will be held in Glasgow at the CRUK Scotland Institute – September 23-26, 2025. Stay posted for updates!

Prof Elizabeth Vincan, OrU convener.