Researchers 3D-Print an Active, Viable Tumor

Researchers from Tel Aviv University printed an entire active and viable glioblastoma tumor. The breakthrough achievement enables faster prediction of best treatments for patients.

“Our innovation gives us unprecedented access to 3D tumors that better imitate the clinical scenario, enabling optimal investigation," says the study's lead researcher, Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro  .

Transcript

00:00:02 [Music] the importance of our study is that this is the first time that we were able to 3d print a glioblastoma tumor which is one of the most aggressive tumors in the brain and while doing so we were able to print the blood vessels which are connected to a peristaltic pump and we

00:00:39 pump through them the blood of the same patient and also monotherapy one single therapy or a combination of different treatments that are being used or being explored for glioblastoma the 3d printed model is printed inside a bioreactor we have designed in our lab and the printing is being made with a composition that mimics the brain

00:01:05 after we evaluated the cells and the composition to match the same as we have in the human body for 3d modern is better in mimicking the growth rate and the behavior of each tumor from each patient by genetic sequencing we showed that cancer cells that grow in our 3d models have similar gene expression to the same cells grow in the natural environment the brain the

00:01:33 process in which we bioprint a tumor from a patient is that we go to the operating suit we take a chunk of the tumor we print it according to the mri of that specific patient and then we have about two weeks that we can test all the different therapies that we would like to evaluate their efficacy on that specific tumor and get back with an

00:01:57 answer which treatment is predicted to be the best fit the impact of our research to future therapies of glioblastoma is that we will be able to use this 3d printed model of glioblastoma to discover new targets for novel therapies that were not used until today in current treatments [Music]

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