Researchers from the Los Angeles-based Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) say they have successfully designed a method for rapid testing large numbers of potential immunotherapy drugs against live tumor cells for accurate and easily analyzable data.
They began by culturing spherical aggregates of breast cancer cells in a custom-fabricated, 3D printed, transparent chip with conical microwells, which were designed for optimum growth and stability of the cellular spheres. Tests performed on the microwells’ cellular spheres confirmed the cells’ viability and their production of T cell de-activating surface proteins, according to the scientists, who published their study (“Cancer-on-a-Chip for Modeling Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor and Tumor Interactions”) in the journal Small.
