Meacham, collaborators to develop pancreatic tumor-on-a-chip platform
J. Mark Meacham will lead a team working to study pancreatic cancer tumor behavior
J. Mark Meacham, assistant professor of mechanical engineering & materials science, received a $75,000, one-year grant from the Washington University Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Pancreatic Cancer Developmental Research Program.
With collaborators Ryan Fields, MD, professor of surgery, and Peter Goedegebuure, associate professor of surgery, both at Washington University School of Medicine, Meacham will develop and validate a novel microfluidic tumor-on-a-chip platform that incorporates a tumor and various noncancer cells involved in tumor growth from a human patient to study pancreatic cancer tumor behavior. In addition, they plan to scale up the platform for high-throughput screening while maintaining relevant features of the pancreatic cancer tumor microenvironment, which would provide researchers with a method to screen various treatment combinations that more closely mimic human tumor biology and immunobiology.
The SPORE programs are funded by the National Cancer Institute to promote collaborative, interdisciplinary translational cancer research.
