The Virtual Child

Richard J Gilbertson; Sam Behjati; Anna-Lisa Böttcher; Marianne E Bronner; Matthew Burridge; Henrick Clausing; Harry Clifford; Tracey Danaher; Laura K Donovan; Jarno Drost; Alexander M M Eggermont; Chris Emerson; Mona G Flores; Petra Hamerlik; Nada Jabado; Andrew Jones; Henrick Kaessmann; Claudia L Kleinman; Marcel Kool; Lena M Kutscher; Gavin Lindberg; Emily Linnane; John C Marioni; John M Maris; Michelle Monje; Alexandra Macaskill; Steven Niederer; Paul A Northcott; Elizabeth Peeters; Willemijn Plieger-van Solkema; Liane Preußner; Anne C Rios; Karsten Rippe; Peter Sandford; Nikolaos G Sgourakis; Adam Shlien; Pete Smith; Karin Straathof; Patrick J Sullivan; Mario L Suvà; Michael D Taylor; Emma Thompson; Roser Vento-Tormo; Brandon J Wainwright; Robert J Wechsler-Reya; Frank Westermann; Shannon Winslade; Bissan Al-Lazikani; Stefan M Pfister

doi:10.1158/2159-8290.CD-23-1500

The Virtual Child

Cancer Discov. 2024 Apr 4;14(4):663-668. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-23-1500.

Authors

Richard J Gilbertson^{1

2}, Sam Behjati^{3

4

5}, Anna-Lisa Böttcher^{6

7}, Marianne E Bronner⁸, Matthew Burridge⁹, Henrick Clausing¹⁰, Harry Clifford¹¹, Tracey Danaher¹², Laura K Donovan¹³, Jarno Drost^{14

15}, Alexander M M Eggermont¹⁴, Chris Emerson¹¹, Mona G Flores¹⁶, Petra Hamerlik¹⁷, Nada Jabado¹⁸, Andrew Jones⁹, Henrick Kaessmann¹⁹, Claudia L Kleinman^{20

21}, Marcel Kool^{6

7

14}, Lena M Kutscher^{6

22}, Gavin Lindberg²³, Emily Linnane^{1

2}, John C Marioni^{1

3

24}, John M Maris^{25

26}, Michelle Monje²⁷, Alexandra Macaskill²⁸, Steven Niederer²⁹, Paul A Northcott³⁰, Elizabeth Peeters³¹, Willemijn Plieger-van Solkema³², Liane Preußner³³, Anne C Rios¹⁴, Karsten Rippe³⁴, Peter Sandford⁹, Nikolaos G Sgourakis^{26

35}, Adam Shlien³⁶, Pete Smith³⁷, Karin Straathof^{38

39}, Patrick J Sullivan⁴⁰, Mario L Suvà^{41

42}, Michael D Taylor⁴³, Emma Thompson⁴⁴, Roser Vento-Tormo³, Brandon J Wainwright⁴⁵, Robert J Wechsler-Reya⁴⁶, Frank Westermann^{6

47}, Shannon Winslade⁴⁴, Bissan Al-Lazikani⁴⁸, Stefan M Pfister^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ CRUK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
² Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
³ Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, United Kingdom.
⁴ Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
⁵ Department of Paediatrics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
⁶ Hopp Children's Cancer Center (KiTZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
⁷ Division of Pediatric Neurooncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg, Germany.
⁸ Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California.
⁹ Amazon Web Services, London, United Kingdom.
¹⁰ SELECT SouthWest, Germany.
¹¹ NVIDIA, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
¹² Children's Cancer Foundation, Australia.
¹³ University College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, United Kingdom.
¹⁴ Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
¹⁵ Oncode Institute, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
¹⁶ NVIDIA, Santa Clara, California.
¹⁷ University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
¹⁸ Department of Paediatrics, Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
¹⁹ Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH), Heidelberg, Germany.
²⁰ Lady Davis Research Institute, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
²¹ Department of Human Genetics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
²² Developmental Origins of Pediatric Cancer Junior Research Group, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
²³ The EVAN Foundation, Maryland.
²⁴ European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
²⁵ Division of Oncology and Center for Childhood Cancer Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
²⁶ Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
²⁷ Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California.
²⁸ AstraZeneca, Oncology R&D, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
²⁹ Turing Research and Innovation Cluster in Digital Twins (TRIC: DT), The Alan Turing Institute, London, United Kingdom.
³⁰ Department of Developmental Neurobiology, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee.
³¹ b.r.a.i.n.child, SickKids Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
³² Dutch Childhood Cancer Organization (VKKN), the Netherlands.
³³ BioNTech SE, Mainz, Germany.
³⁴ German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Heidelberg, Division of Chromatin Networks, Heidelberg, Germany.
³⁵ Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
³⁶ Genetics and Genomics Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada.
³⁷ Hula Therapeutics, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
³⁸ University College London Cancer Institute, London, United Kingdom.
³⁹ Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, United Kingdom.
⁴⁰ Team Finn Foundation, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
⁴¹ Department of Pathology and Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
⁴² Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Boston, Massachusetts.
⁴³ Texas Children's Cancer Center, Hematology-Oncology Section and Department of Pediatrics - Hematology/Oncology and Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
⁴⁴ Brain Tumour Charity, Fleet, United Kingdom.
⁴⁵ The University of Queensland Frazer Institute, Translational Research Institute, Woolloongabba, Queensland, Australia.
⁴⁶ Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York.
⁴⁷ Division of Neuroblastoma Genomics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
⁴⁸ Department of Genomic Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.

PMID: 38571421
DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-23-1500

Abstract

We are building the world's first Virtual Child-a computer model of normal and cancerous human development at the level of each individual cell. The Virtual Child will "develop cancer" that we will subject to unlimited virtual clinical trials that pinpoint, predict, and prioritize potential new treatments, bringing forward the day when no child dies of cancer, giving each one the opportunity to lead a full and healthy life.

MeSH terms

Humans
Neoplasms* / genetics