Microphysiological Models for Metastatic Cancer

Abstract:

Circulating tumor cells form metastases by reaching a distant microcirculation, undergoing transendothelial migration, entering the remote tissue and proliferating.  Microfluidic assays have been developed to visualize and quantify this process within vascular networks that recapitulate aspects of the in vivo microcirculation. 

Tumor cells, with or without accompanying immune cells, are streamed into a vascular network grown in a 3D matrix, some fraction of which arrest and extravasate into the surrounding matrix. These studies provide detailed information on the ability of different tumor cell types to extravasate, the adhesion molecules they use, and the effects of various other cell types in the intravascular and extravascular spaces. 

While these models are largely organ-independent, work has also begun to investigate the specificity of certain cancers to metastasize to organs such as the brain.  For this purpose, a model of the blood-brain barrier has been produced, characterized in terms of its morphology and vascular permeability, and then used it to explore extravasation and tumor formation with the brain as the target organ.

Speaker biography: 

Roger D. Kamm is currently the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering at MIT, where he has served on the faculty since 1978. Kamm has long been instrumental in developing research activities at the interface of biology and mechanics, formerly in cell and molecular mechanics, and now in engineered living systems. Current interests are in developing models of healthy and diseased organ function using microfluidic technologies, with a focus on vascularization.

Kamm has fostered biomechanics as Chair of the US National Committee on Biomechanics (2006-2009) and of the World Council on Biomechanics (2006-2010). Kamm currently directs the NSF Science and Technology Center on Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems. He is the 2010 recipient of the ASME Lissner Medal and the 2015 recipient of the Huiskes Medal, both for lifetime achievements, and is the inaugural recipient of the Nerem Medal for mentoring and education. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine since 2010. Kamm is co-founder of two companies, Cardiovascular Technologies and AIM Biotech.