NCN OPUS, 2021/41/B/ST4/01725, 2022-2026

Funding: National Science Centre, Poland

Grant period: 18.01.2022-17.01.2026

Project description:

Breast and female reproductive tract cancers (gynecologic cancers) cause high mortality among women and are an important social problem. Recent studies of new anticancer compounds used to treat gynecological cancers are mainly based on 2D in vitro assays. Although, Lab-on-a-chip systems are developed to improve anticancer studies, they still have a lack of some properties present in vivo (i.e. heterogenous nature and vascularization). This still not allows to study cellular function and drug cytotoxicity under conditions present in native tissue of gynecological cancers. Therefore, we propose the research on the development of a new perfusion culture model, which will mimic vascularization and spatial arrangement of cancer cells.

The main goal of the proposed project is to develop a new methodology of three-dimensional (3D) modeling of gynecological cancers using perfusion microbioanalytical Lab-on-a-chip systems useful to study basic functions of cancer cells and toxicity assays. Two important features such as heterogeneity and vascularization of tumor (often skipped in the microsystems) will be studied within this Project.

Team members:

• Principal Investigator: D.Sc. Ph.D. Eng. prof. PW Elżbieta Jastrzębska
• Co-investigator: Ph.D. Eng. Magdalena Flont, Ph.D. Eng. Agnieszka Żuchowska, Ph.D. Agnieszka Gnyszka, Prof. D.Sc. Ph.D. Eng.  Artur Dybko
• Co-investigator: D.Sc. Ph.D. Sylwia Flis (Warsaw University of Life Sciences)
• PhD students: M.Sc. Eng. Joanna Konopka, M.Sc. Eng. Oliwia Tadko
• Students: Eng. Paulina Musolf, Krzysztof Mrozik

Publications:

1. 1. Konopka J., Kołodziejek D., Flont M., Żuchowska A., Jastrzębska E., Brzózka Z.: Exploring Endothelial Expansion on a Chip, Sensors, 2022, vol. 22, pp.9414_1 – 9414_15, Article number:s22239414. DOI:10.3390/s22239414
   2. Konopka J., Żuchowska A., Jastrzębska E.: Vascularized tumor-on-chip microplatforms for the studies of neovasculature as hope for more effective cancer treatments, Biosensors & Bioelectronics, 249, 2024, 115986, 115986_1-115986_14, DOI:10.1016/j.bios.2023.115986

Project dissemination:

1. Paulina Musolf, Magdalena Flont, Joanna Konopka, Agnieszka Żuchowska, Elżbieta Jastrzębska, A new lab-on-a-chip system for modeling vascularized ovarian cancer tissue, MicroTAS 2023, 15-19.10.2023, Katowice, Poland, poster
2. Magdalena Flont, Krzysztof Mrozik, Elżbieta Jastrzębska, The study of irreversible integration of porous plastic membranes in a PDMS microfluidic system for 3D cell culture, MicroTAS 2023, 15-19.10.2023, Katowice, Poland, poster
3. Elżbieta Jastrzębska „Systemy Organ-on-a-Chip – nowe podejście w hodowli komórek in vitro” PTChem2023, 18-22.09.2023, Toruń, Poland – invited
4. Elżbieta Jastrzębska, Joanna Konopka, Patrycja Staniszewska, Agnieszka Żuchowska. Microplatform for angiogenesis studies. NanoBioTech 2022, 14-16.11.2022, Montreux, Switzerland, poster
5. Joanna Konopka, Patrycja Staniszewska, Agnieszka Żuchowska, Elżbieta Jastrzębska, A microsystem for the study of vascularization, 9th International Symposium on Sensor Science, Warsaw, Poland, 20-22.06.2022, oral presentation