SUMMARY

Brain tumors are among the deadliest of all types of cancer. Advances in the field of neuro-oncology have contributed to unveiling previously unappreciated molecular characterizations and developing diverse therapeutic approaches to treat brain tumors. Despite these advances, functional assessments of targets in preclinical and clinical studies are still limited. Specifically, although a number of components composing brain tumor microenvironment, including dynamic fluid flow, extracellular matrix, and complex cellular components, have been considered to considerably contribute to the development of cancer and the key target to treat brain cancer, the mechanism has not been clearly unveiled. To date, organ-on-a-chip technology has contributed to reconstructing the complex physiology of the three-dimensional tumor microenvironment. Previous studies employed the technique to recapitulate the brain tumor microenvironment. Nevertheless, physiologically related components in the brain tumor microenvironment required for the reconstruction were absent in the platforms: dynamic fluid flow, extracellular matrix, and complex cellular components such as microvascular systems. Engineering the in vitro brain tumor culture system has been required to co-culture each essential component of the specific microenvironment with its physiological relevance. By applying the technique, we are developing a microfluidic platform called ‘human brain tumor-on-a-chip that can recapitulate the key structure, function, and dynamic microenvironment of the human brain tumor. The goal of this proposal is to conduct anti-cancer drug screening by which personal brain tumor treatment can efficiently be administered to brain tumor patients using our human brain tumor-on-a-chip that can reconstitute physical traits of brain tumor microenvironment and a condition of human brain tumor pathology.