Congratulations to Lipke Lab members Morgan and Yuan for their wins at the Alabama NSF EPSCoR Science and Technology Open House poster competition! Check out our Instagram.
When Engineering meets Art
Congratulations to Lipke Lab member Iman for winning the Auburn SHOWCASE Creative Scholarship Exhibition with his submission “Elucidation of the Adipocytic Microenvironment”. For more information.
Congratulations to Iman and Ferdous for winning at This is Research Symposium
Congratulations to Iman and Ferdous for winning at 2018 This is Research Symposium! Iman won the 1st Place in Poster Presentations under Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The title for his presentation is “Personalized in vitro 3D colorectal cancer model using patient-derived xenografts”. Ferdous won the College and School Awards for College of Engineering for her poster titled “A novel microfluidic device for encapsulation of human induced pluripotent stem cells for production of cardiac spheroids”. Congratulations! For more information.
Congratulations to Yuan for winning the Alabama EPSCoR GRSP Fellowship
Lipke Lab graduate researcher Yuan Tian was named recipient of the 2018 Alabama EPSCoR Graduate Research Scholars Program Fellowship! Congratulations! Click for more information.
SynVivo 3D Breast Cancer Model used to assess anti-cancer drug efficacy
A recent publication in Scientific Reports from the Lipke and Arnold Labs at Auburn University titled “A Microvascularized Tumor-mimetic Platform for Assessing Anti-cancer Drug Efficacy” reports on using the SynVivo microfluidic platform to develop and validate a three dimensional in vitro breast cancer model with a tumor-mimetic microvascular network. The model recapitulates the in vivo heterogeneity in tumor perfusion and resulting differences in cellular morphology, growth and drug responses.
This significant body of work resulted from the collaboration of Dr. Lipke’s tissue engineering background with Dr. Arnold’s cancer biology and drug delivery expertise.
According to Dr. Lipke “ Replicating the pathophysiological architecture and non-uniform drug distribution of native vascularized breast tumors is critical for a realistic tumor model. SynVivo’s microvascular networks provided just the right environment to monitor the therapeutic circulation in the vasculature, transport across the vessel walls, and delivery to 3D tumors, which renders it ideally suited as a platform for performing cellular assays and drug screening”.
Dr. Arnold agrees and adds, ”The ability of these engineered cancer tissues for long-term culture, heterogeneous morphology and anti-cancer drug response provides a unique perspective to understand how nanomedicines may interact with various tumors. This will enable development of therapeutics with improved efficacy and minimal toxicity while improving patient outcomes, thereby providing an in vitro model analogous to the heterogeneity observed in vivo”.
This vascularized tumor model provides a necessary platform for investigation of cancer-stromal-endothelial interactions, tumor metastases, drug delivery and efficacy for both pre-clinical research and translational outcomes.
Download the full publication below
A Microvascularized Tumor-mimetic Platform for Assessing Anti-cancer Drug Efficacy
Pradhan et al (2018) 8:3171 | DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-21075-9
Grant awarded from NSF
Elizabeth Lipke, the Mary and John H. Sanders Associate Professor of chemical engineering, and Selen Cremaschi, the B. Redd Associate Professor of chemical engineering, were awarded a $621,934 grant from the National Science Foundation for their research on cardiac tissue manufacturing.
For more information: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1743445&HistoricalAwards=false
Research on cancer models and drug testing is highlighted
Dr. Elizabeth Lipke’s research on cancer models and drug testing is highlighted in Auburn University webpage:
Engineered model tumors look to advance cancer drug application
Youtube link
Lipke Lab members presented at AU This is Research Student Symposium
Lipke Lab members presented their research at the AU This is Research Student Symposium alongside nearly 500 Auburn student researchers!