A New Way to Grow Tumors in 3-D

 ========= Old Image Removed =========Array
(
    [_wp_attached_file] => Array
        (
            [0] => 2018/03/BenchtopSystemCropped2.png
        )

    [_wp_attachment_metadata] => Array
        (
            [0] => a:5:{s:5:"width";i:558;s:6:"height";i:416;s:4:"file";s:34:"2018/03/BenchtopSystemCropped2.png";s:5:"sizes";a:8:{s:6:"medium";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:34:"BenchtopSystemCropped2-336x250.png";s:5:"width";i:336;s:6:"height";i:250;s:9:"mime-type";s:9:"image/png";}s:9:"thumbnail";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:34:"BenchtopSystemCropped2-140x140.png";s:5:"width";i:140;s:6:"height";i:140;s:9:"mime-type";s:9:"image/png";}s:9:"wbhm-icon";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:32:"BenchtopSystemCropped2-80x80.png";s:5:"width";i:80;s:6:"height";i:80;s:9:"mime-type";s:9:"image/png";}s:13:"wbhm-featured";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:34:"BenchtopSystemCropped2-558x338.png";s:5:"width";i:558;s:6:"height";i:338;s:9:"mime-type";s:9:"image/png";}s:18:"wbhm-featured-home";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:34:"BenchtopSystemCropped2-417x311.png";s:5:"width";i:417;s:6:"height";i:311;s:9:"mime-type";s:9:"image/png";}s:22:"wbhm-featured-carousel";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:34:"BenchtopSystemCropped2-355x265.png";s:5:"width";i:355;s:6:"height";i:265;s:9:"mime-type";s:9:"image/png";}s:28:"ab-block-post-grid-landscape";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:34:"BenchtopSystemCropped2-558x400.png";s:5:"width";i:558;s:6:"height";i:400;s:9:"mime-type";s:9:"image/png";}s:14:"post-thumbnail";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:34:"BenchtopSystemCropped2-125x125.png";s:5:"width";i:125;s:6:"height";i:125;s:9:"mime-type";s:9:"image/png";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:12:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";s:11:"orientation";s:1:"0";s:8:"keywords";a:0:{}}}
        )

    [_imagify_optimization_level] => Array
        (
            [0] => 0
        )

    [_media_credit] => Array
        (
            [0] => 
        )

    [_navis_media_credit_org] => Array
        (
            [0] => Contributed photo
        )

    [_navis_media_can_distribute] => Array
        (
            [0] => 
        )

    [_imagify_data] => Array
        (
            [0] => a:2:{s:5:"sizes";a:9:{s:4:"full";a:5:{s:7:"success";b:1;s:8:"file_url";s:62:"https://news.wbhm.org/media/2018/03/BenchtopSystemCropped2.png";s:13:"original_size";i:334438;s:14:"optimized_size";i:294814;s:7:"percent";d:11.85;}s:9:"thumbnail";a:5:{s:7:"success";b:1;s:8:"file_url";s:70:"https://news.wbhm.org/media/2018/03/BenchtopSystemCropped2-140x140.png";s:13:"original_size";i:35756;s:14:"optimized_size";i:31300;s:7:"percent";d:12.460000000000001;}s:6:"medium";a:5:{s:7:"success";b:1;s:8:"file_url";s:70:"https://news.wbhm.org/media/2018/03/BenchtopSystemCropped2-336x250.png";s:13:"original_size";i:129448;s:14:"optimized_size";i:111378;s:7:"percent";d:13.960000000000001;}s:9:"wbhm-icon";a:5:{s:7:"success";b:1;s:8:"file_url";s:68:"https://news.wbhm.org/media/2018/03/BenchtopSystemCropped2-80x80.png";s:13:"original_size";i:13381;s:14:"optimized_size";i:11824;s:7:"percent";d:11.640000000000001;}s:13:"wbhm-featured";a:5:{s:7:"success";b:1;s:8:"file_url";s:70:"https://news.wbhm.org/media/2018/03/BenchtopSystemCropped2-558x338.png";s:13:"original_size";i:282733;s:14:"optimized_size";i:242232;s:7:"percent";d:14.32;}s:20:"wbhm-featured-square";a:5:{s:7:"success";b:1;s:8:"file_url";s:70:"https://news.wbhm.org/media/2018/03/BenchtopSystemCropped2-300x300.png";s:13:"original_size";i:135426;s:14:"optimized_size";i:116447;s:7:"percent";d:14.01;}s:18:"wbhm-featured-home";a:5:{s:7:"success";b:1;s:8:"file_url";s:70:"https://news.wbhm.org/media/2018/03/BenchtopSystemCropped2-417x311.png";s:13:"original_size";i:188737;s:14:"optimized_size";i:161523;s:7:"percent";d:14.42;}s:22:"wbhm-featured-carousel";a:5:{s:7:"success";b:1;s:8:"file_url";s:70:"https://news.wbhm.org/media/2018/03/BenchtopSystemCropped2-355x265.png";s:13:"original_size";i:142869;s:14:"optimized_size";i:122954;s:7:"percent";d:13.94;}s:14:"post-thumbnail";a:5:{s:7:"success";b:1;s:8:"file_url";s:70:"https://news.wbhm.org/media/2018/03/BenchtopSystemCropped2-125x125.png";s:13:"original_size";i:29236;s:14:"optimized_size";i:25640;s:7:"percent";d:12.300000000000001;}}s:5:"stats";a:3:{s:13:"original_size";i:1292024;s:14:"optimized_size";i:1118112;s:7:"percent";d:13.460000000000001;}}
        )

    [_imagify_status] => Array
        (
            [0] => success
        )

)
1654368812 
1520503344

If you can grow cancer outside the body, it’s easier to figure out how to kill it. With an eye toward faster drug development and more effective treatments, a UAB biomedical engineer has come up with a new way to sustain cancer cells. It’s a technical challenge, but Joel Berry knows how to explain his system in a digestible way:

“Think of it like making Jello at home.”

But instead of powder and water in a Jello mold for hungry people, it’s collagen in a silicone housing for hungry cancer cells.

“We put it all into a mold, and then we allow that collagen gel to actually form a solid,” says Berry. “And we keep everything profused with a nutrient fluid, and we keep it warm in an incubator, and it’s off to the races.”

Berry calls it a “bioreactor.” The collagen framework inside the housing is intricate, but the whole thing measures only about a cubic centimeter. “Cubic” is key: it’s three-dimensional, unlike, say, a single layer of cells in a petri dish. So the tumors can have volume, as they would in a person.

“We’re going for realism in that we’re creating a three-dimensional tumor, and we’re introducing a flow which is meant to mimic blood flow,” Berry says. “It’s allowed us to do a lot of different things with tumors on the bench-top.”

The engineering feat here is making tiny structures that can withstand fluid being pumped through them and sustain different kinds of cancer cells. Berry calls himself a “plumber,” but he’s a plumber who hopes to play a role in finding faster, cheaper ways to fight cancer.

These are not humans. So drugs that work on their cancers might not work in humans. But if you could grow someone's actual cancer cells...

Sarah Laval, Flickr
These are not humans. So drugs that work on their cancers might not work in humans. But if you could grow someone’s actual cancer cells outside that person and try out all sorts of drugs on it…

Zev Gartner, a pharmaceutical chemist at the University of California, San Francisco, points out that “it can cost anywhere from several hundred million to several billion dollars to develop and get new drugs approved by the pharmaceutical industry.”

He says the high costs and long duration of the process stem partly from drugs that show early promise – say, in mice – but later fail in expensive human trials. Gartner, who’s not affiliated with Berry’s work, says Berry’s bioreactors could cut those costs:

“One fantastic way of doing that would be to reduce the number of drugs that actually go into clinical trials that are likely to fail. And the best way of doing that is to have better models for the interaction of these drugs with humans.”

Along those lines, Gartner sees potential personalized benefits too. Sometimes drugs work for one person but not for someone else with the same kind of cancer. But, “one dream might be to be able to take a biopsy of a tumor and place it in a device and then screen say, 10, 20, maybe even a hundred different combinations of approved drugs and look to see which one works best. We might be able to actually take some of the guesswork out of what drugs to use.”

Berry says his team has made more than a hundred bioreactors and that cancer specialists at UAB are starting to use them in their own labs. If the system continues to work and spread, researchers could theoretically develop better treatments faster, and for less money.

 

Trump and Putin discuss Ukraine drone strikes, Iran during 75-minute call

President Trump said it was a "good conversation" but noted the Russian leader had vowed "very strongly" during the call to respond to Ukraine's Sunday drone strikes on air bases in Russia.

Alex Warren finally tops the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Ordinary’

The biggest news this week belongs to singer-songwriter Alex Warren, whose blockbuster track "Ordinary" ascends to No. 1 on the Hot 100 singles chart for the first time.

Vietnam ends its longstanding 2-child policy

A declining birth rate led lawmakers to approve a new policy on Tuesday that lifts the limit on the number of children many families may have.

Some federal workers lost health coverage they had paid for. A Democrat wants answers

Commerce Department employees who were fired, reinstated, and fired again learned belatedly that their health insurance has been cut off. Some had already racked up thousands in medical bills.

Edmund White, who broke ground in gay literature, has died at 85

Many of White's books chronicled his own experiences as a gay man, making an indelible impression on gay culture and how LGBTQ experiences were understood more broadly at the dawning of the AIDS health crisis.

Greetings from Mexico City, where these dogs ride a bus to and from school

Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR's international correspondents share snapshots of moments from their lives and work around the world.

More Front Page Coverage