Modelling Cancer Metastasis on a Chip for Therapeutic Discovery

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Metastasis is the leading cause of death in cancer patients, and is difficult to treat. Metastasis involves complex biological and physical interactions between cancer cells and their microenvironment. Our understanding of events leading to metastasis is limited by the significant gap between currently available in vitro models (e.g. lack of tumour heterogeneity and microenvironmental interactions) and in vivo models (genetic differences between mice and humans, low throughput). This together hampers the development of drugs to target steps of metastasis. This PhD project proposes to develop a novel bioengineered microfluidic culture system, which combines simulated cancer heterogeneity with microenvironmental complexity. This will increase our understanding of critical steps of the metastatic cascade, and provide a prototype preclinical assay system with greater predictive power for drug development.