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PERSPECTIVE

Advancing cancer research using bioprinting for

tumor-on-a-chip platforms

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1
1
5
3,4
Stephanie Knowlton , Ashwini Joshi , Bekir Yenilmez , Ibrahim Tarik Ozbolat , Chee Kai Chua ,
Ali Khademhosseini 6,7,8 and Savas Tasoglu 1,2*
1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
3 Engineering Science and Mechanics Department, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
4 The Huck Institute of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
5 Singapore Centre for 3D Printing (SC3DP), School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technologi-
cal University (NTU), 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
6 Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical
School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
7 Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
02139, USA
8 Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115, USA

Abstract: There is an urgent for a novel approach to cancer research with 1.7 million new cases of cancer occurring
every year in the United States of America. Tumor models offer promise as a useful platform for cancer research with-
out the need for animal models, but there remains a challenge to fabricate a relevant model which mimics the structure,
function and drug response of human tumors. Bioprinting can address this need by fabricating three-dimensional con-
structs that mimic tumor heterogeneity, vasculature and spheroid structures. Furthermore, bioprinting can be used to
fabricate tissue constructs within microfluidic platforms, forming “tumor-on-a-chip” devices which are ideal for
high-throughput testing in a biomimetic microenvironment. Applications of tumors-on-a-chip include facilitating basic
research to better understand tumor development, structure and function as well as drug screening to improve the effi-
ciency of cancer drug discovery.
Keywords: bioprinting, cancer, tumor-on-a-chip, microfabrication, microfluidics, drug screening

*Correspondence to: Savas Tasoglu, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of
Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA; Email: savas@engr.uconn.edu

Received: February 24, 2016; Accepted: April 19, 2016; Published Online: June 22, 2016
Citation: Knowlton S, Joshi A, Yenilmez B, et al. 2016, Advancing cancer research using bioprinting for tumor-on-a-chip platforms.
International Journal of Bioprinting, vol.2(2): 3–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.18063/IJB.2016.02.003.

1. Clinical and Pharmaceutical Need for Three- ing need for innovative cancer research approaches to
Dimensional (3D) Tumor-on-a-chip Platforms develop more effective therapies. Rapid innovation in
W [1] research and therapy. Bioprinting enables fabrication
bioprinting technology has great potential in cancer
ith an estimated ~1.7 million new cases of
cancer occurring in the United States of
of three-dimensional (3D) cancer models for basic
America (USA) in 2016 , there is a grow-
science research and for testing pharmaceuticals and

Advancing cancer research using bioprinting for tumor-on-a-chip platforms. © 2016 Stephanie Knowlton, et al. This is an Open Access article dis-
tributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/),
permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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