Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects (NSERC partnered)

Drug treatments for cancer patients are largely based on the part of the body where the cancer originated and its appearance under the microscope. New personalized treatment approaches are needed to improve survival and reduce the side effects of ineffective treatments. Our goal is to design a drug screening tool against which all available treatment strategies can be tested prior to their use clinically. To this end, we propose to: (1) design a 3D culture system in which to better understand cellular organization; (2) engineer a 3D biopatterned hydrogel; and (3) grow human-derived cancer cells in the 3D matrix against which drug treatments will be tested. By creating a platform to test treatments against an individual patient's cancel cells, we aim to advance the development of personalized cancer medicine.