RESEARCH LINES

Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally. Cancer is a large group of diseases that can start in almost any organ or tissue of the body when abnormal cells grow uncontrollably, go beyond their usual boundaries to invade adjoining parts of the body, and/or spread to other organs. The latter process is called metastasizing and is a significant cause of death from cancer.

There is growing evidence that the difference in proliferation and treatment response is associated with the tumor microenvironment (TME) heterogeneity. Precisely for this reason, in the last years, the vision of cancer-focused exclusively on the tumor has undergone a shift to a broader concept that also gives importance to the TME.

Developing more accurate experimental cancer models, including TME to mimic the tissue organization, requires more elaborate systems. At this point, Organ-on- Chip technology emerges with the aim of solving this problem.  Our purpose is to generate microfluidic devices to recreate the tumor microenvironment to evaluate the tumor progression.