OvaCure & Partners

OvaCure, a Copenhagen-based scientific NGO, is on a mission to find a cure against ovarian cancer. OvaCure financially supports innovative research groups and projects, with a focus on enabling scientific partnerships across discipline silos.

The OvaCure Collection is based on a close collaboration with Professor Krister Wennerberg and the research around Assistant Professor Wojciech Senkowski, (BRIC, University of Copenhagen), a world leading organoid expert. Based on the acclaimed organoid platform developed by Senkowski et al., cryo-preserved patient-derived tumor tissue is grown, validated and expanded into stable, well-characterized organoid models.

The primary tumor samples are derived from patients with high-grade serious ovarian cancer at TYKS (Turku University Hospital, Finland) by Professor Sakari Hietanen and adjunct Professor Johanna Hynninen.

Data of the DNA and RNA sequencing as well as the surgical observations, pathology reports and the clinical records are sources for deep data analysis made available for subsequent requests. The team under Professor Sampsa Hautaniemi at Helsinki University (FI) is responsible for the underlying data structure as well as genomic and transcriptomic data processing and analysis.

Auria Biobank is responsible for the cryo-storage of the validated organoid models and all the associated data as well as the main handlers of application process and the associated legal requirements.