In recent years, physiologically relevant 3D in vitro models of cancer have been continuously refined in order to better mimic the tumour microenvironment when testing chemotherapies and immunotherapies. An increasing interest in precision treatment of cancer patients has highlighted the need for technologies that are capable of maximising the testing of compounds in 3D tumour models obtained from cancer biopsies. Microfluidics and organ-on-a-chip technologies, via precise control of fluids and cells in solution, offer great opportunities for screening biopsy-derived spheroids, organoids, co-cultures and primary tumour fragments in a sophisticated and cost-effective manner.
We have developed microfluidic platforms for high quality and multiplexed drug screening assays on both spheroid, organoids and tissue fragments. Readouts, such as the spheroid volume, spheroid shape and viability are generated from both brightfield and epifluorescence microscopy. The technology has been validated using a variety of cell lines, primary and biopsy cancerous tissue. As proof of concept, human prostate biopsies were grown as a heterogeneous co-culture and used for the generation and screening of thousands of spheroids, showing sensitivity to docetaxel, but resistance to enzalutamide, despite the presence of intact androgen receptors. A further application of the platform lies in the co-culture of several cell types, in order to reconstruct a more realistic tumour microenvironment. Several breast cancer cell lines and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) were tested to allow the assessment of the impact of drugs and inhibitors on specific cell populations. Lastly, ovarian tumour biopsy tissue fragments were cultured for precision medicine purposes.
Senior scientist at ScreenIn3D, interested in the development of novel assays for drug development and screening, using complex microfluidic 3D in vitro models