Creating a Real-World Tumor Microenvironment Model

Cancer is a complex tissue composed of cancer cells and their surrounding non-cancerous cells. Therefore, to reproduce the human tumor microenvironment, it is necessary to establish an assay system that includes not only cancer cells but also non-cancer cells.

In this field, we are focusing on fibroblasts (CAFs), which are representative of non-cancer cells. Recent studies have shown that CAFs are a functionally and morphologically heterogeneous population of cells. We have isolated and cultured CAFs from many cancer specimens and constructed a real-world model of the microenvironment formed by these CAFs and cancer cells using fluorescent proteins, time lapse imaging, and organoid production techniques to elucidate the mechanism of cancer development and drug sensitivity.

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