Development and spatial refinement of complex tissue-engineered 3D cancer models guided by computational modelling
Project ID: 2228cd1312 (You will need this ID for your application)
Research Theme: Healthcare Technologies
UCL Lead department: Mechanical Engineering
Lead Supervisor: Ryo Torii
Project Summary:
In vitro three-dimensional biomaterial assisted models of the cancer tissue are expected to advance the understanding of cancer mechanobiology because they represent the 3D tumour structure, e.g., vasculature, extracellular matrix (ECM) composition and various cell types in the tumour – all key elements determining the blood and drug supply – and these features can be robustly controlled/altered.
We aim to develop a novel computational mechanobiological model of tumoroids, including fluid and nutrient transport, biological tissue growth.
The project will start with investigation of polymer-based scaffolds in acellular conditions. Using this setting that allows precise control of porosity – a key determinant for scaffold permeability that in turn determines oxygen and nutrient transport – we will develop a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model of scaffolds for evaluating transport characteristics, which will be validated against experimental measurement.
The model will further be developed including more realistic scaffold geometry and response of the biological system to the flow and other biomechanical environment. The former will be achieved using advanced imaging of real scaffold made in vitro. For the latter, a computational framework combining CFD and agent-based modelling (ABM) to represent cellular behaviours (e.g. chemotaxis), will be developed. By combining CFD and ABM, we will aim to predict the cellular growth pattern in the 3D tumoroid, which can be used to evaluate the efficacy of scaffold design.
After further validation against our existing scaffold-based cancer models, the computational model will be used as a “virtual tumoroid” to optimse the scaffold characteristics towards its better mechanobiological features, based which the real-world tumoroid models will be developed further.
The supervisors, Prof Torii (Mechanical Engineering) and Dr Velliou (Surgical and Interventional Science) are experts of computational biomechanics and in vitro tumoroid model. High-quality training on cutting-edge computational and experimental techniques will be provided within their research teams.