(570d) Bioprinting Vascularized Cancer Models

The process to develop novel therapies for cancer patients is very costly and slow due to the lack of reliable preclinical screening models. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop novel patient-specific cancer models. Engineered in vitro tissue models utilizing patients’ own cells could potentially revolutionize the way we develop treatment and diagnostic alternatives. A wide range of in vitro tissue models have been developed using natural and synthetic polymers. Although these in vitro models have been widely utilized to study tumor microenvironment (TME), majority of them are two-dimensional and don’t include vasculature (crucial for tumor growth and spreading). In addition, they all display static properties, and don’t mimic the dynamic changes in the TME. In this study, we present a novel 3D bioprinting approach to fabricate vascularized tumor models using hyaluronic acid based bioinks. The bioink formulation developed in this study allows stiffening behavior in the presence of cells and enzymatic degradation to enable cell migration. This platform could potentially used for semi-combinatorial drug screening, and ultimately used to develop fast and affordable cancer treatment alternatives.