3D microgels to quantify tumor cell properties and therapy response dynamics

Tumors contain heterogeneous and dynamic populations of cells that do not all display the fast-proliferating properties that traditional chemotherapies target. There is a need therefore, to develop novel treatment strate-gies that target diverse tumor cell properties. Identifying therapy combinations is challenging however. Current approaches have relied on cell lines cultured in monolayers with treatment response being assessed using endpoint metabolic assays, which although enable large-scale throughput, do not capture tumor heterogeneity. Here, a 3D in vitro tumor model using micro-molded hydrogels (microgels), the Gels for Live Analysis of Com-partmentalized Environments (GLAnCE) platform, is adapted into a 96-well plate format (96-GLAnCE) that in-tegrates patient-derived organoids (PDOs) and is combined with longitudinal automated imaging to address these limitations. Using 96-GLAnCE, two measures of tumor aggressiveness are quantified, tumor cell growth and in situ regrowth after drug treatment, in both cell lines and PDOs. The use of longitudinal image-based readouts enables the identification of tumor cell phenotypes with cell population and subpopulation resolution that cannot be detected by standard bulk-soluble assays. 96-GLAnCE is a versatile and robust platform that combines 3D-ECM based models, PDOs, and real-time assay readouts, to provide an additional tool for pre-clinical anti -can-cer drug discovery for the identification of novel targets with translatable clinical significance.

Automated summary

Tumors are heterogeneous and dynamic, making it difficult for traditional chemotherapies to target all cells. Therefore, there is a need to develop novel treatment strategies to target diverse tumor cell properties. This study introduces a 96-GLAnCE platform, which combines a 3D tumor model, patient-derived organoids, and real-time assay readouts, to identify tumor cell phenotypes and novel targets with clinical significance.