Using engineered tissue environments in various shapes and patterns, the study of skin cancer found that the more curved the cell cultures were, the more cancer cells at the edges displayed markers of stem cell characteristics — the key to spreading to other tissues. (sciencedaily.com)
Knowing TH17 cells need to function in a variety of tissue environments throughout the body, Sundrud's team wondered if and how these cells might use different tools to behave normally in one environment — or tissue — than they'd use in another. (sciencedaily.com)
Kilian hopes that the patterned, engineered tissue environments will give researchers a new way to find and culture cancer stem cells, which have been very elusive in conventional cultures — less than 1 percent of cells, he said. (sciencedaily.com)