{"entity":{"id":"idea-bio1-model-patient-matching","kind":"idea","name":"Pick the laboratory model that matches the patient, not the one to hand","aka":[],"tldr":"Labs usually use whichever tumour models they already have. A searchable index that finds the model closest to a specific patient's tumour would make experiments more relevant.","summary":"Thousands of characterised models exist across DepMap, the Human Cancer Models Initiative, PDX repositories and institutional banks, but selection is driven by availability and habit. A matching engine indexing molecular profiles, ancestry, treatment history and microenvironment features would return the closest available models for a given tumour profile, and quantify how much of the clinical population has any representative model at all.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"DepMap portal","url":"https://depmap.org/portal/"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":["organoids","pdx-models","cgp"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["broad-institute","nci"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-preclinical-models","b-trial-diversity","b-data-silos"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Formal matching shows that a substantial share of common tumour molecular subtypes and non-European ancestries have no closely matched model, and directs derivation effort toward those gaps.","rationale":"Model collections over-represent easily grown, historically sampled tumours from a narrow population, which is a plausible and testable contributor to translational failure and to inequitable drug performance.","test":"Build the index across public repositories, compute coverage of clinical genomic cohorts by subtype and ancestry, and publish the gap map as a derivation priority list.","maturity":"speculative","actor":"data","cost":"small","horizonYears":2},"route":"/ideas/idea-bio1-model-patient-matching/","neighbours":{"technology":[{"id":"cgp","kind":"technology","name":"Comprehensive genomic profiling","route":"/technologies/cgp/"},{"id":"organoids","kind":"technology","name":"Patient-derived organoids","route":"/technologies/organoids/"},{"id":"pdx-models","kind":"technology","name":"Patient-derived xenografts","route":"/technologies/pdx-models/"}],"institution":[{"id":"broad-institute","kind":"institution","name":"Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard","route":"/institutions/broad-institute/"},{"id":"nci","kind":"institution","name":"National Cancer Institute (NIH)","route":"/institutions/nci/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-data-silos","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Data silos","route":"/bottlenecks/b-data-silos/"},{"id":"b-preclinical-models","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Lab models that fail to predict what happens in patients","route":"/bottlenecks/b-preclinical-models/"},{"id":"b-trial-diversity","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Trials do not represent the people who get cancer","route":"/bottlenecks/b-trial-diversity/"}]}}