Biomaterial Based Approaches to Study the Tumour Microenvironment

The tumour microenvironment is increasingly recognized as an important contributor to cancer progression and treatment. However, most cancer studies continue to be performed in 2D tissue culture dishes that do not capture the characteristics of the tumour niche. This book provides an introduction to the rich chemical, topographical, and mechanical cues in the tumour microenvironment and then introduces readers to bioengineering strategies, including scaffold design and synthesis, chemical signalling and delivery, and co-culture, microfluidics, and organ-on-a-chip tools that can be used to mimic tumour microenvironment features. This book also includes discussion of emerging imaging methods compatible with tumour microenvironment mimicking biomaterials and discusses applications of such models in immuno-oncology, metastasis, and drug screening. Edited by two leaders in the field, this book will appeal to graduate students and researchers working in biomaterials science, chemical and biomedical engineering departments.