# Shared reference organoid and PDX panels that every lab can test against

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr2-reference-model-panels/  
OnCo record `idea-tr2-reference-model-panels` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

If every lab had access to the same set of well-characterised tumour models, results could be compared directly instead of each lab using its own private models.

## Summary

Organoid and patient-derived xenograft results are hard to compare because models differ between labs. A curated reference panel (for example 50 organoids and 50 PDX models per major cancer, fully characterised, distributed at cost by a repository such as the Human Cancer Models Initiative or EurOPDX) with standard culture protocols and published baseline drug responses would serve as the common ground for method comparison and replication.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: Drug-response results generated on the reference panel in different laboratories will show inter-laboratory concordance above 0.8, and findings validated on the panel will replicate more often than those on private models.
- Rationale: Reference strains and lines underpin reproducibility in microbiology and immunology; oncology models have proliferated without a reference set.
- Proposed test: Distribute the panel to ten laboratories; run a common drug set; measure concordance; compare with historical cross-lab discordance.
- Maturity: preclinical-evidence
- Actor: philanthropy

## Sources

- Human Cancer Models Initiative: https://www.cancer.gov/ccg/research/functional-genomics/hcmi
- EurOPDX: https://www.europdx.eu/

## Connected records

- collections: [Cancer Models (PDCM Finder) & HCMI](https://onco.cc/collections/cancer-models/)
- ideas: [A public atlas of drug-pair responses across a thousand patient-derived organoids](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr2-organoid-matrix-atlas/), [Every drug screen includes standard reference compounds whose performance is published](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr2-reference-compound-panels/)
- technologies: [Patient-derived organoids](https://onco.cc/technologies/organoids/), [Patient-derived xenografts](https://onco.cc/technologies/pdx-models/)
- bottlenecks: [Lab models that fail to predict what happens in patients](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-preclinical-models/), [Preclinical results do not reproduce](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-reproducibility/)
- roadmaps: [Drug discovery roadmap: screening in mice → maps of dependency → designing in silico](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/drug-discovery-roadmap/)

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