Exploiting Nanomaterials in Breast Carcinogenesis and Metastasis: Mechanisms and Novel Therapeutic Approaches

Description

Tumor models reflect the behavior of cancer cells and their surrounding environment and are indispensable tools in cancer research, drug discovery, and mechanistic studies. Current tumor models suffer from a major drawback: The complex tumor microenvironment cannot be accurately described by current in vitro models, leading to failures of models in predicting tumor behavior. This project aims to study the effects of topology on tumor progression, including viability, biomarker expression, and proliferation. This will be achieved through an innovative interdisciplinary approach that uses nanomaterials (e.g., MXenes) to create unique topology-enhanced surfaces to create a wide variety of three-dimensional microenvironments for tumor establishment. The resulting model with unprecedented correlation to actual tumor environments demonstrated in microfluidic prototypes and characterized by biochemical analysis to assess their gene and protein profiles and metastatic potential. This project will generate insights for developing clinically relevant patient-derived tumor models for various therapies and drug screening applications.