MIcrovascularizED Tumour-on-chip for Cellular ImagiNg of Drug Response and Cell moTility

Descrizione del progetto

Una piattaforma di cancro su chip per la scoperta farmacologica

Le colture cellulari tridimensionali stanno emergendo come modelli promettenti per la scoperta di farmaci contro il cancro, per la tossicologia, nonché per gli studi preclinici e di medicina personalizzata. Oltre alla loro natura biomimetica e alla riproducibilità dei risultati, esse facilitano anche la riduzione delle sperimentazioni animali. Il progetto MImETIC INDiRECT, finanziato dall’UE, ha sviluppato un sistema di coltura basato sulla microfluidica che comprende una camera di chip ricoperta da matrice extracellulare, nonché sensori di temperatura e ossigeno. Soprattutto, il sistema impiega mezzi di coltura del fattore di crescita ottimizzati ed è compatibile con l’attrezzatura di imaging. I ricercatori impiegheranno linee cellulari per ricostruire modelli tridimensionali di cancro in vitro e promuoverà queste versatili piattaforme di cellule su chip per la commercializzazione.

Obiettivo

MImETIC INDiRECT aims to develop a standardised, accessible, versatile organ-on-chip toolkit for cancer biology and drug discovery research, compatible with microscopy-based (live imaging and confocal) techniques. The project is expected to facilitate academia and industry adoption of microfluidic 3D cell culture systems for comparable and reproducible results in a complex biomimetic animal free model for cancer drug discovery, toxicology, advanced (pre)clinical as well as personalized medicine. The toolkit components will consist of an integrated temperature controller dual-chamber chip, the Cherry Biotech CubiX system and growth factor optimized collagenous solutions for each chip chamber. The dual chamber chip, with cellular migration lanes, will have two tailored collagen-based formulations, designed per chamber. The CubiX platform is a compact flow and temperature controller, allowing optional sensor (e.g. O2) integration, compatible with single chips or 24-well plates. The cancer(s) sub-types to be used toolkit standardization will be dictated by market needs, where commercial cell lines (cancerous and non-cancerous) will be used to create the microvascularized complex tissue model. Potential project risks have been identified with appropriate mitigation strategies, where the project promotes adoption of standardized, cost-effective and versatile cancer organ-on-chip platforms in the market, rather than disruptive academic findings. Access of the aforementioned system to a worldwide growth market will fully exploit the project results, disseminated by direct and indirect marketing and scientific approaches. Project implementation will be an academic-industry collaborative and multidisciplinary manner providing the acquisition of diverse and unconventional complementary skills, leading to an understanding of both sectors requirements. We envision the above-mentioned to facilitate future academic and industry collaborations.