Elucidating Essential Components of Bone Marrow Metastasis

描述（由申请人提供）：在许多致命的癌症中观察到骨髓转移。肿瘤细胞优先迁移到骨腔作为一个功能的组成骨髓。我们已经开发了一种骨髓组织工程类似物，并计划使用这种结构来识别骨髓转移生态位的关键基质细胞成分。我们建议：1)建立微流控平台，在体外捕获迁移的肿瘤细胞；2)在芯片上构建肿瘤基质微环境；3)BMSC支架对肿瘤生长的体内比较和治疗研究。该项目将在K99培训期间为候选人提供微流体，成像和癌症生物学方面的必要培训，并推动其成为研究型大学生物材料和肿瘤学领域成功的独立研究者，成为R00研究员。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Metastasis to the bone marrow is observed in a number of fatal cancers. Tumor cells preferentially migrate to the bone cavity as a function of composition of the bone marrow. We have developed a tissue engineered analogue of the bone marrow and plan to use this construct to identify the key stromal cellular components of a bone marrow metastatic niche. We propose to: 1) Develop a microfluidic platform to capture migratory tumor cells in vitro, 2) Create tumor-stroma microenvironments on-chip, and 3) In vivo comparison and treatment study of BMSC scaffolds on tumor growth. This project will provide essential training to candidate in microfluidics, imaging, and cancer biology during the K99 training period and propel him to be a successful independent investigator in the field of biomaterials and oncology as an R00 investigator at a research university.