Microfluidic Cell Arrays to Mimic 3D Tissue Microenvironment

We developed a functional high throughput 3D microfluidic living cell array (MLC) for anti-cancer drug screening and mechanism discovery. Contemporary drug screening methods suffer from low sample throughput and lack of abilities of mimicking the 3D microenvironment of mammalian tissues. The poor performance of anti-cancer drugs limits the efficacy at controlling the complex disease system like cancer. Systematic studies of apoptotic signaling pathways can be prominent approaches for searching active and effective treatments with less drug resistance. Hence, innovative bio-devices are needed to represent tumor microenvironment to understand the molecular signatures of apoptosis for testing new anticancer therapies targeting apoptosis. Our novel 3D MLC design is the prototype of a high-throughput drug screening platform targeting apoptotic signaling pathways.