According to the American Cancer Society, "In the United States, colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men and in women, and the second most common cause of cancer deaths when numbers for men and women are combined. It's expected to cause about 52,580 deaths during 2022." And while statistics show that the death rate is in fact decreasing slightly each year, cases diagnosed for those under 50 years of age are actually increasing slightly each year. Innovations in colorectal cancer research and treatment are imperative for the health and wellness of Americans - both young and old.

Leading molecular biologist Durga Attili has over 10 years of professional experience, with a strong focus in colorectal cancer research. He earned his bachelor's degree in biotechnology from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, and later completed his master's in cell and molecular biology at Eastern Michigan University.

Thanks to recent advances, some colorectal cancer patients are now living up to four times longer than was ever expected - and with minimal side effects. Innovation in the field has been multifaceted, and Attili's work with and development of organoids has been a key factor.

A specialist in organoids

After studying mouse stem cells for almost two decades, scientists finally discovered a method to be able to derive stem cells from human embryos and grow the cells in a laboratory in 1998. The next major breakthrough in stem cell research came in 2006 when researchers identified specific conditions that would allow some specialized adult human cells to actually be "reprogrammed" genetically to assume a stem cell-like state, and these are known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Fast forward to the present day, and we now see incredible applications of these stem cells.

Molecular biologist Attili has been a lead researcher and developer of organoids, which are tiny, self-organized three-dimensional tissue cultures derived from stem cells. Organoids have fundamentally opened up a brand new perspective and lens on disease and development, as well as medical treatment. These stem cell cultures can be crafted to replicate much of the complexity of an organ, or to express certain aspects and functions of the organ. According to the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, "This way of culturing tissues [gives] scientists a detailed view of how organs form and grow, providing them with new insights on human development and disease as well as giving them the opportunity to see how drugs interact with these "mini-organs"."

Having first joined the Research Lab Specialist team at the University of Michigan in September of 2014, Attili is best known for the development of the isolation method of normal human colon and adenoma LGR5 positive stem cells using MACS and FACS, as well as the development of methods to establish organoid cultures from cryopreserved biopsy tissue. Over the years, within his team he led several clinical studies related to organoids, contributing significantly to our understanding of these cultures and their potential applications. [...]

Delivering organoids to the world with biobanks

On a global scale, Attili's contribution to biobanks is revolutionizing the field of drug discovery and opening new approaches to personalized medicine. In simple terms, biobanks are a type of biorepository that stores biological samples, including organoids, for use in research, drug testing, DNA methylation studies and cell pathway mechanism studies.

Attili has spent a large part of his career focussed on the development of organoid cultures to contribute to biobanks with normal human duodenum, colon, lynch, adenoma and adenocarcinoma samples. These organoids have been distributed worldwide to both nonprofit and profit organizations as part of the University of Michigan's mission to help scientists with their studies. Attili also established biobanks for normal colon and intestinal bowel disease in both active and remission patients that are currently being used for Aquamin's clinical studies and trials. Furthermore, he worked in collaboration with biobanks to study the process of iron uptake via DMT1 integrated cell cycle with JAK-STAT3 signaling to promote colorectal tumorigenesis. He has licensed organoids to such leading biotech companies as EMD Millipore, STEMCELL Technologies & Regeneron.

The future of organoids

Looking to the future, Attili's work with organoids is really only just beginning - the possibilities are endless. His various research projects have already been cited over 400 times by leading professionals, and it is clear that his work is a huge factor in driving innovation within the field. 

He has already demonstrated the translational application of organoids to show how iron is responsible for colon cancer. Currently, he is in the process of stage one of a clinical trial using organoids to evaluate the chemopreventive effects of Aquamin on ulcer colitis active and remission patients in order to treat colon cancer. He shares that, "In future, I would [also] like to improve our understanding regarding ulcerative colitis (UC) in both active and remission patients. The establishment of UC organoid biobanks from these diseased and also control patients can help us to use this model system to test various pharmacological drugs to treat the patients with a more personalized approach."

Attili is also fascinated by neuroscience, and has recently started to develop neurological disorder modeling using brain organoids from iPSCs. By establishing this system, he has been able to study and model bipolar disorder. This is particularly significant as bipolar disorder doesn't have any cell lines or model systems to have allowed study of this condition previously.

He hopes to further expand to study rare genetic diseases as well as to model complex systems like brain cancer (glioblastoma, medulloblastoma, central nervous system tumors) as we are incredibly limited by the source material and animal models to understand the development and mechanism of disease. The differentiation of human Induced Pluripotent Stem cells (hiPSCs) derived from cancer and control patients into cerebral organoids (fore brain, midbrain, and spinal cord) will not only help to model and better understand the cancer development, but also to discover new targets and drugs.

Durga Attili has an amazing ability to quickly master complex domains and deliver profound innovation within them. When asked about the next step in his career, he explains: "I would like to develop new technologies by combining the use of exosomes as target deliverables carrying drugs, to be tested on these organoids. Exosomes are small bilipid molecules with the ability to pass through the blood brain barrier and the organoid model can serve as an epithelial barrier to pass through in order to reach the target site. Having optimized the protocol to isolate exosomes as well as growing cerebral organoids, I believe that it will further expand our knowledge to identify new targets and drugs to treat brain cancer."

This expert molecular biologist has developed an incredible reputation, and his work has brought exciting innovation to an industry that is essential to the health and wellness of America. He has 33 publications to his name and continues to have passion and drive to raise the bar, with a focus on reducing overall costs and making modern medicine more accessible. That's what we like to hear!