Masters Applied Projects

Project 23

Development of a High-Throughput Microfluidics Tumor-Stroma Platform

Student: Ouse Sheblak

Mentors: Dr. Mehdi Nikkhah – SBHSE
Dr. Xiaojun Tian – SBHSE
Dr. Hamidreza Marvi – SEMTE

YouTube Link: View the video link below before joining the zoom meeting

Zoom link: https://asu.zoom.us/j/88511400607

Time: 10am – 12pm

Abstract

Cancer, of all types, has become a leading cause of death around the world, with some types of cancer being more lethal than other. Cancer therapies are extremely expensive, have a relatively low success rate, and take a massive toll on the patient’s body. At the same time, drug screening for cancer is not efficient as it must be personalized to the patient, is very time consuming, costly, and requires large amounts of patient’s blood samples. In this study, we developed a high-throughput microfluidics device that models the 3D tumor-stroma interactions, and invasion of tumor cells in-vitro to allow for simultaneous screening of multiple drugs against any type of cancer. A 3D tumor microenvironment (TME) is cultured on this platform using its 3D structure, tumor cells, and stromal cells, which mainly consist of cancer-associated fibroblasts along with other components such as extracellular matrix (ECM), all of which are sampled from the patient. A credit card design that houses 15 individual units fabricated using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) will be used to enable the use of multi-pipettes and electronic multi-pipettes through standard spacing between adjacent units on the device to efficiently inject hydrogels, seed cells, and screen multiple drugs at the same time. Testing with collagen hydrogels showed promising results with regards to filling up the channels and preventing leakages between the regions in the device. Future steps include developing a new form factor for the device and testing with microposts of different shapes. This platform will have significant novelty in the field of personalized medicine.