Periodic Reporting for period 1 - VASTO (VAScularised Tumour Organoids on a chip with human placenta vessels as a preclinical model for anticancer therapies.)
Reporting period: 2023-11-01 to 2025-04-30
The VASTO project has successfully integrated diverse scientific disciplines and methodologies into a single platform, presenting both scientific and technical challenges. The goal was to develop an improved in vitro model for cancer research and a testing platform for novel immunotherapies. Within this framework, we designed and developed different approaches, ranging from simpler to more complex systems. The first simpler microfluidic system involves a microfluidic chip, a hydrogel matrix and tumour spheroids This system allows to monitor the dynamics of tumour spheroid response. . The final system, on the other hand, constitutes the technological basis for filling an international patent, which is being applied now. For this reason, dissemination of the project has been reduced. Additionally, we have evaluated the possibility of establishing a biomedical start-up company as one the industrial partner for commercialize the developed system.
In the VASTO project, we developed different approaches to testing immunotherapies against cancer. In all cases, we obtained relevant results and achieved significant progress. It is noted that in the most complex microfluidic system, we obtained several significant findings that are pending to be protected by a patent.
The technique and methods describing different aspects of the complex platform developed are being finalized and prepared for a patent application in a joint effort of Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragon (IIS-Aragon), ARAID and University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR).