3D tumour models with real cells for testing treatments
A group at CIC biomaGUNE manufactures tumour models to understand how they grow and behave under different conditions
The actual cells are donated thanks to a collaboration agreement with Galdakao-Usansolo University Hospital and Policlínica Gipuzkoa
Researchers from the Bionanoplasmonics group at CIC biomaGUNE are producing in vitro 3D tumour models in the most realistic environment possible, in order to better understand how these tumours grow and behave under different conditions, thereby significantly improving the results traditionally obtained with cell cultures in plates (2D) and reducing animal experimentation.
This line of research, which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) as part of a Proof of Concept, stems from the need to improve the success rate of compounds being researched and developed to fight different types of cancer. Only around 4% of the compounds investigated in human clinical trials as potential cancer treatments are actually launched as medicines. ‘We want to achieve greater efficiency in the preclinical in vitro phase so that the compounds that reach clinical trials with patients have a greater chance of success,’ says Ikerbasque Professor Luis Liz Marzán.
Advanced 3D bioprinters
To this end, the CIC biomaGUNE team has advanced instrumentation with which it prints three-dimensional tumour models ‘that contain both cancer cells and other cell populations that are present in real tissues, as we know that the tumour environment is of great relevance,’ says research associate Malou Henriksen.
