Organotypic & Engineered Tissue and Tumor Models

Deciphering and deconstructing the complex brain tumor microenvironment, and the resistance mechanisms it poses to cancer therapies, is a major research challenge. Organotypic brain slices and tissue engineered brain tumor organoid systems allow for the systematic discovery, characterization, perturbation, and validation of targetable vulnerabilities. These high-throughput 3-D culture systems preserve key facets of the in vivo biology – such as non-malignant glial reactivity, and the semi-intact tumor neurovascular unit  –  without the complexity or significant time/cost of animal experiments. They are ideal for genetic/pharmaceutical manipulation for mechanistic studies, live imaging and quantitative microscopy, multiscale mechanical testing/application, multiplexed ‘-omics’ and biomarker evaluation, and personalized drug testing. Thus, preclinical tissue engineered platforms can bridge the gap between basic and clinical research by evaluating novel and clinically translatable treatment strategies in a bench-to-bedside-and-back-again approach.