B2B

Innovative 3D organ on chip based model to study breast to bone metastasis formation

A major obstacle in preventing high breast cancer mortality is the limited understanding of how breast cancer cells metastasise to bone sites. The EU-funded B2B project aims to develop a first-of-a-kind 3D model of spontaneous breast cancer metastasis to the bone for the purposes of basic research and drug screening in a physiological context. It will overcome the drawbacks of traditional in vitro and in vivo models by mimicking the physiological system of connected organs. Cultured breast cancer organoids will be connected in vitro to marrow-containing bone tissue via a fluidic system involving the self-assembled capillaries of those organoids and an artificial 3D bioprinted macro-vascular tree of branching blood vessels.