Kyoto: Researchers from Kyoto University, Japan have created a new device that can culture cancerous cells in vitro in a three-dimensional fashion that better mimics the conditions present in the human body. Touted as ‘Tumour-on-a-chip’, this piece of equipment opens up new possibilities for testing several potential cancer-fighting drugs with greater accuracy and ease.
The device is the size of a coin with a 1 mm well at the centre. This well is flanked by a series of 100 mm ‘microposts’. The idea is that a three-dimensional culture of tumor cells is placed in the middle well, and then cells that construct blood vessels are places along the microposts. Over a few days the vessels grow and attaches to the culture.
—ANI