BPN360: Biomimetic Microfluidic Assembly of Spheroids and Dynamic Perfusion for Anti-Cancer Drug Discovery

Multicellular tumor spheroids may provide a better model than monolayer culture of in vivo tumors for drug assays. We present a novel microfluidic method for self-assembly of tumor spheroids for these studies. Our device traps cancer cells hydrodynamically and spheroid formation is enhanced by maintaining compact groups of the trapped cells due to continuous perfusion. It was found that spheroid formation speed and size uniformity increased with increased flow rate. A large amount of tumor spheroids (7,500 spheroids per square centimeter) with a narrow size distribution (10 ± 1 cells per spheroid) can be formed in the device to provide a good platform for anticancer drug assays.

Project end date: 08/13/07