Fully humanised 3D vascular perfused model for breast cancer modelling and therapeutic screening

乳腺癌是影响妇女的最常见癌症。科学家们在实验室中使用一系列模型来研究这一点。这包括在塑料培养皿上培养细胞或使用动物模型来模拟乳腺癌的行为。两种模式都不理想;在塑料上培养细胞与人体内细胞的存在方式有很大的不同，而用来模拟乳腺癌的动物通常是小鼠，与人类有很大的不同。我们希望实施一个更接近患者的乳腺癌模型。这仍然使用在实验室中生长的细胞，但这些细胞的生长方式更类似于它们在人体中的生长方式。细胞在三维环境中生长，目前，这种三维环境中含有动物源性物质。在这个项目中，我们希望改变三维环境，使其完全没有任何动物产品。我们可以用一种叫做水凝胶的物质来实现。我们可以在水凝胶中添加不同的物质，使其与乳腺癌细胞在体内生长的环境相同。一旦我们实现了这一点，我们将使这个环境更接近癌细胞在体内的状态。在体内，癌细胞有血液供应，使它们能够接受维持生存所需的持续营养。这也是设计用于杀死癌细胞的药物的输送方式。这在实验室中很难实现。我们已经克服了这一点，通过使用人造血液替代品，我们将引入到我们的三维环境。这将产生一个乳腺癌模型，它与乳腺癌细胞在人体中的生长方式有许多相似之处，我们将能够在自己的实验室中常规使用。我们希望尽可能多的科学家了解这个模型并能够使用它，因此我们将组织培训活动，来自英国各地的科学家可以在我们的技术中接受实际操作培训，以便有信心开始在自己的实验室中使用它。最后，作为大学学者，我们负责培养下一代科学家，因此将通过讲座和实践课程将这项技术引入我们的教学中。

Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women. Scientists use a range of models to study this in the laboratory. This includes growing cells on plastic dishes or using animal models to mimic how breast cancer behaves. Neither model is ideal; growing cells on plastic is very different from how cells exist in the human body, while the animals used to mimic breast cancer are usually mice, which are very different from humans. We wish to implement a closer-to-patient model of breast cancer. This still uses cells growing in the laboratory, but these are growing in a way that is more similar to how they are in the human body. The cells grow in a three-dimensional environment, Currently, this three-dimensional environment contains animal-derived substances. In this project we wish to change the three-dimensional environment to make it completely free of any animal products. We can do this using a substance called a hydrogel. We can add different substances to the hydrogel to make it the same as the environment in which breast cancer cells grow in the body. Once we have achieved this we will make this environment closer still to how cancer cells are in the body. In the body cancer cells have a blood supply which allows them to receive a continuous flow of nutrients required to keep them alive. This is how drugs designed to kill cancer cells are also delivered. This is hard to achieve in the laboratory. We have overcome this by using an artificial blood substitute which we will introduce into our three-dimensional environment. This will produce a breast cancer model which has many similarities to how breast cancer cells grow in the human body, which we will be able to use routinely in our own labs. We want as many scientists as possible to know about this model and be able to use this, so we will organise training events where scientists from all over the UK can receive practical hands-on training in our technology so that are confident to start using this in their own labs. Finally, as university academics we are responsible for training the next generation of scientists so will introduced this technology into our teaching through lectures and practical sessions.