3D stem-like spheroids-on-a-chip for personalized combinatorial drug testing in oral cancer.

Background: Functional drug testing (FDT) with patient-derived tumor cells in microfluidic devices is gaining popularity. However, the majority of previously reported microfluidic devices for FDT were limited by at least one of these factors: lengthy fabrication procedures, absence of tumor progenitor cells, lack of clinical correlation, and mono-drug therapy testing. Furthermore, personalized microfluidic models based on spheroids derived from oral cancer patients remain to be thoroughly validated.

Facile Route for 3D Printing of Transparent PETg-Based Hybrid Biomicrofluidic Devices Promoting Cell Adhesion.

3D printing has emerged as a promising fabrication technique for microfluidic devices, overcoming some of the challenges associated with conventional soft lithography. Filament-based polymer extrusion (popularly known as fused deposition modeling (FDM)) is one of the most accessible 3D printing techniques available, offering a wide range of low-cost thermoplastic polymer materials for microfluidic device fabrication. However, low optical transparency is one of the significant limitations of extrusion-based microfluidic devices, rendering them unsuitable for cell culture-related biological applications.