Design, fabrication, and testing of 3D printed micro-fluidic devices for exploring the culture of human tumour based organoids, and to alter the tumour microenvironment
Dr. Jill Urbanic
University of Windsor
FUNDER: Equally Engineering, Vice-President Research & Innovation (VPRI)
DURATION: 2023-2024
Solid tumours of the breast and brain are complicated structures comprised of different populations of cancer cells with diverse growth properties that respond differently to the normal surrounding cells and tissues. In Windsor, Ontario, a huge effort has been made to develop a 'translational' research pipeline where tissues from patients are used in a laboratory setting to provide a wealth of data that can inform cancer biology and support the advacement of personalized medicine. Currently, there are a host of technical barriers with culturing of the tumour tissues outside of the body that has reduced progress. To tackle these issues and potentially revolutionize the study of cancer tissue in a translational research setting, the use of a cutting-edge 3D printed device with fluidics will be studied.
Through the successful completion of creating a 3D printed device, this will open multiple avenues for new research in the biomedical and engineering fields. This novel approach will allow for tumour evaluation to be more efficient and accurate, while minimizing the quantity of patient samples required.
