A major goal of cancer research is prediction of the best possible therapy for the patient. For the development of patient-specific predictive models, as well as for basic cancer research, patient-specific cell cultures represent an important tool. However, there are limited methods to bring different cell types of the cancer microenvironment into defined spatial neighborhood in cell culture. 

In this project, we are using additive manufacturing (3-bioprinting) to spatially associate and maintain tumor cell types in culture. We are developing bioinks that are tailored to the extracellular matrix requirements of individual cell types, particularly for epithelial cancer cells and tumor immune cells.