3D printing of tumours

In cancer research, we need to be able to grow cancer cells in the laboratory both to understand the disease and to develop drugs to treat it. In the last decades, the importance of three-dimensional environments has been highlighted as a basic feature ensuring correct physiological and pathological behaviour of cells in culture. Cancer cells behave differently when grown in a 2D environment compared with a 3D matrix and that can result in a different sensitivity to drugs. Especially relevant in cancer in situ is the fact that different cells types can interact and either promote or repress cell proliferation and survival. In order to overcome the difficulty of studying cancer cells in their correct microenvironment in the laboratory, new methods capable of generating a 3D multicellular system need to be implemented. Ideally, these methods need to allow a relatively fast and cheap way of generating different 3D constructs with a limited effect on cells. Spatial organization and automation of the process would be highly desirable. Our project is to develop a 3D printing strategy using common biocompatible hydrogels to create multicellular tumour-like structures and use this technology to investigate the relationship between the 3D tumour structure and other characteristics of the tumour, such as drug sensitivity. My results to date show that the printing process can be performed with minimum effect on cell viability, even when cells are printed at high density; that cells proliferate within the gel and eventually form more complex structures.