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.
Publications
Morsby J.J., Zhang Z., Burchett A.A., Datta M.#, and Smith B.D.# (2024) “Ratiometric near-infrared fluorescent probe for nitroreductase activity enables 3D imaging of hypoxic cells within intact tumor spheroids,” Chemical Science, E-pub ahead of print: https://doi.org/10.1039/D3SC06058F. (# = corresponding authors.)