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Cancer Tissue Engineering Collaborative

The Cancer Tissue Engineering Collaborative (TEC) Research Program supports the development and characterization of state-of-the-art biomimetic tissue-engineered technologies for cancer research. Collaborative, multidisciplinary projects that engage the fields of regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, biomaterials, and bioengineering with cancer biology will be essential for generating novel experimental models that mimic cancer pathophysioogy to elucidate specific cancer phenomena that are otherwise difficult to examine in vivo. Project applications are invited through an NCI-supported funding opportunity announcement for R01 grants.

The Cancer TEC Research Program will catalyze the advancement of innovative, well characterized in vitro and ex vivo systems available for cancer research, expand the breadth of these systems to several cancer types, and promote the exploration of cancer phenomena with biomimetic tissue-engineered systems.

Investigators supported through the Cancer TEC Research Program will be affiliate members of the NCI Physical Sciences - Oncology Network, and opportunities for cross-program discussion and collaboration will be fostered through activities such as the annual Physical Sciences - Oncology Network Investigators’ Meeting.

Funding Opportunities

The Cancer Tissue Engineering Collaborative consists of specialized U01 and R01 research projects. For information on ongoing funding opportunities, reference the R01 announcement Cancer Tissue Engineering Collaborative: Enabling Biomimetic Tissue-Engineered Technologies for Cancer Research PAR-19-113.

Research project grants awarded by the U01 Announcement PAR-16-105 are listed below. This U01 funding opportunity expired on January 27, 2017, and has been replaced by R01 announcement PAR-19-113. Slides and frequently asked questions from the public pre-application webinar are now available.

Funded Projects (as of July 2020)
Institution Principal Investigators Project Title
Boston University Drs. Joe Tien and Celeste Nelson Engineered Invasive Human Breast Tumors with Integrated Capilaries and Lymphatics
Brigham and Women’s Hospital Drs. Ali Khademhosseini and Shiladitya Sengupta Engineering Personalized Micro-Tumor Ecosystems
Cleveland Clinic Drs. Emina Huang, Xiling Shen, & Michael Shuler An Organotypic Model Recapitulating Colon Cancer Microenvironment and Metastasis
Columbia University Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic Cancer Patient on a Chip
Harvard University Drs. David Mooney, Jennifer Lewis, and F. Stephen Hodi 3D Models of Immunotherapy
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Drs. Roger Kamm & David Barbie  Development of Physiologic Tissue Models to Assess Tumor Explant Response to Immune Checkpoint Blockade
University of California, Los Angeles Dr. Stephanie Seidlits Tissue-Engineered Models of Microvessel-Mediated Glioblastoma Invasion
University of California, San Francisco Drs. Manish K. Aghi & Sanjay Kumar Modeling and Druggable-Genome Screening of Glioblastoma Invasion Using Regional Biopsy-Guided Biomaterials Systems
University of Illinois Drs. Joanna E. Burdette & Jonathan Coppeta Dynamic Interactions of the Ovarian-Fallopian Axis in High Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer
University of Pittsburgh Dr. Shilpa Sant Three-Dimensional Organoid Models to Study Breast Cancer Progression
University of Wisconsin Drs. Pamela Kreeger, Kristyn Masters, and Paul Campagnola Engineered ECM platforms to analyze progression in high grade serous ovarian cancer
Yale University Rong Fan, Ph.D.  and  Jiangbing Zhou, Ph.D. Ex vivo analysis of human brain tumor cells in a microvascular niche model