Capturing cell growth in 3-D
Replicating how cancer and other cells interact in the body is somewhat difficult in the lab. Biologists generally culture one cell type in plastic plates, which doesn’t represent the dynamic cell interactions within living organisms. Now MIT spinout AIM Biotech has developed a microfluidics device — based on years of research — that lets researchers co-culture multiple cell types in a 3-D hydrogel environment that mimics natural tissue. Among other things, the device can help researchers better study biological processes, such as cancer metastasis, and more accurately capture how cancer cells react to chemotherapy agents, says AIM Biotech co-founder Roger Kamm, the Cecil H. Green Distinguished Professor in MIT’s departments of mechanical engineering and biological engineering. “If you want realistic models of these processes, you have to go to a 3-D matrix, with multiple cell types … to see cell-to-cell contact and let cells signal to each other,” Kamm says. “None of those...