Cancer Tissue Engineering Collaborative (TEC)

Representative image for the 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 pathophysiology to elucidate specific cancer phenomena that are otherwise difficult to examine in vivo.

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

History of Cancer TEC

Three workshops have been sponsored by the NCI to assess the status of tissue-engineered systems in cancer and to identify gaps. In April 2012, a Physical Sciences – Oncology Network (PS-ON) workshop was held to discuss areas where physical sciences principles from tissue engineering and developmental biology could open new avenues in cancer research. Participants highlighted the need for development of synthetic in vitro and ex vivo engineered systems to better probe key factors in tissues and their microenvironment important in cancer. The consensus of the participants was that these factors could be best studied in physiologically relevant and controlled tissue-engineered systems.

To further explore the status of tissue-engineered technologies in cancer, a second targeted PS-ON workshop on Biomimetic Tissue Engineered Systems for Advancing Cancer Research was held in February 2014. The workshop highlighted examples of how tissue-engineered technologies are currently being applied to cancer research to study angiogenesis, migration, and therapeutic resistance. Workshop participants identified areas for future focus based on existing research and gaps in cancer biology.

Finally, in April 2015, a joint workshop was held with the National Science Foundation on Additive Manufacturing for Tumor Engineering. The workshop highlighted several barriers to constructing tissue-engineered systems for cancer research, including the need for their robust pathophysiological characterization. Participants recommended the formation of multidisciplinary partnerships to construct and characterize tissue-engineered models of cancer. It was suggested that characterization of systems could include, but not be limited to, biological comparisons of in vivo and clinical datasets.

PAR-22-099 - Cancer Tissue Engineering Collaborative: Enabling Biomimetic Tissue-Engineered Technologies for Cancer Research (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)
Slides from a TEC pre-application webinar
FAQs from TEC funding opportunity announcements

Cancer TEC News

Research Advances from TEC

At the 2023 AACR Annual Meeting, Dr. Steven Becker (a DCB Program Director) gave an NCI Meet-the-Expert presentation on TEC and Opportunities for Biomaterials Research. A summary of the talk can be found on Twitter.

Cancer TEC Associate Membership

The goal of the Cancer TEC Associate Membership program is to provide an opportunity for those who are not currently funded by the Cancer TEC program to engage in Cancer TEC activities and potentially form collaborations with Cancer TEC funded investigators. Additional information, including eligibility, expectations of associate members, and the application form, can be found on the Cancer TEC Associate Membership webpage.

TEC research and funding opportunities are shared on Twitter: @NCIPhySci

Contact for Cancer TEC

For additional information about the TEC, please contact Dr. Steven Becker.

Funded Projects

Institution	Principal Investigator(s)	Project Title
Auburn University	Elizabeth A. Lipke, Michael W. Greene	Engineered Colon Cancer Tissue to Examine the Role of the Obese Microenvironment in Tumor Aggressiveness
Columbia University	Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic	Cancer Patient on a Chip
Cornell University	Esak Lee	Tissue-Engineered Models of Lymphatic Drainage in Breast Cancer
University of Arizona	Cynthia Miranti, Yitshak Zohar	Bioengineered Prostate-on-Chip: Mechanisms of Stromal Dysregulation in Prostate Cancer
University of California, San Francisco	Manish K. Aghi, Sanjay Kumar	Modeling and Druggable-Genome Screening of Glioblastoma Invasion Using Regional Biopsy-Guided Biomaterials Systems
University of Chicago	Melody Swartz	Probing Cellular, Molecular and Biomechanical Barriers to Immunotherapy in the Tumor Microenvironment with Organotypic In Vitro Models of the Tumor-Lympho-Immune Interface
University of Illinois	Joanna E. Burdette, Jonathan Coppeta	Dynamic Interactions of the Ovarian-Fallopian Axis in High Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	Brendan Harley	Perivascular Tissue Models to Overcome MGMT-Mediated Temozolomide Resistance in Glioblastoma
University of Miami	Daniel Pelaez, William Harbour	3-Dimensional Retinal Organoid Platform for the Study of Retinoblastoma
University of Nevada Reno	Bahram A. Parvin	A Novel Breast Cancer Therapy Based on Secreted Protein Ligands from CD36+ Fiibroblasts
University of New South Wales	Kristopher Kilian, John Copland	Microtumor Arrays for the Development of Combination Therapies
University of Pittsburgh	Shilpa Sant	Three-Dimensional Organoid Models to Study Breast Cancer Progression
University of Southern California	Shannon Mumenthaler	A Microengineered Colon Cancer-Chip to Investigate Tumor-Stromal Interactions
University of Texas at Austin	Stephanie Seidlits	Tissue-Engineered Models of Microvessel-Mediated Glioblastoma Invasion
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center	Emina Huang, Xiling Shen, Michael Shuler	An Organotypic Model Recapitulating Colon Cancer Microenvironment and Metastasis
University of Wisconsin	Pamela Kreeger, Kristyn Masters, Paul Campagnola	Engineered ECM Platforms to Analyze Progression in High Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer
Vanderbilt University	Michael King	Enabling Technology to Study Mechanosensitive and Mechanoresistant Cancer Cells in Flow
Yale University	Rong Fan, Jiangbing Zhou	Ex Vivo Analysis of Human Brain Tumor Cells in a Microvascular Niche Model

Past Projects

Institution	Principal Investigator(s)	Project Title
Boston University	Joe Tien, Celeste Nelson	Engineered Invasive Human Breast Tumors with Integrated Capillaries and Lymphatics
Brigham and Women’s Hospital	Ali Khademhosseini, Shiladitya Sengupta	Engineering Personalized Micro-Tumor Ecosystems
Harvard University	David Mooney, Jennifer Lewis, F. Stephen Hodi	3D Models of Immunotherapy
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Roger Kamm, David Barbie	Development of Physiologic Tissue Models to Assess Tumor Explant Response to Immune Checkpoint Blockade