Engineers, Medical Researchers Study Cancer Cell Behavior
John Lannutti, professor of materials science and engineering, is collaborating with Mariano Viapiano, a researcher at Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, and others on the research.
Malignant brain tumors often “shed” cells into surrounding healthy brain tissue, making it extremely difficult or impossible to fully prevent tumor recurrence, even after surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. These highly migratory cells often spread via fibrous tracks that are a natural part of the brain’s inner topography.
Previously, scientists have used flat, rigid, plastic petri dishes — a two-dimensional environment — to grow and study cancer cells in a laboratory setting. However, the spider web-like nanofiber arrays developed by Lannutti and his colleagues simulate three-dimensional human tissue using a medically approved polymer.
“In traditional petri dishes, the cell sees an infinite surface in all directions with nothing on it,” Lannutti explains. “In our three-dimensional cell cultures, the cancer cells move and climb much as they do in human tissue.”
Researchers use a scanning electron microscope housed in Ohio State’s Campus Electron Optics Facility to view the translucent nanofibers, which are 100 times thinner than a human hair. Properly fabricated, the nanofibers can have the exact size and spacing as human brain tissue.
“We want to analyze cells behaving in a manner more representative of how they behave in patients,” says Viapano, an assistant professor of neurological surgery in the College of Medicine. “This is a significant improvement because it gives us a new environment to culture the cells.”
Doctors may soon be able to take a biopsy, place it in the multi-well versions of these nanofibers, and then test the effectiveness of a medicine in the lab first rather than on the patient. Lannutti notes that the research also has the potential to develop cures for breast and lung cancer as well as a variety of non-cancer diseases. Recent results show that both breast and lung cancer cells have been observed to migrate in a similar manner on these aligned nanofibers.
Lannutti, who has been working on the project for four years, adds that the collaboration between cancer research and materials scientists is unique.
“It is new to me, and it’s new to the field,” he says.
Lannutti and one of his doctoral students, Jed Johnson, co-founded Nanofiber Solutions, a limited liability company, to produce and market cell culture products that use the polymer nanofibers. The research is funded by Ohio Third Frontier Program grants and other sources. Nanofiber Solutions has a lab in the TechColumbus business incubator near Ohio State’s West Campus. Lannutti is chief scientist at Nanofiber Solutions; Johnson, who obtained his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in materials science and engineering from Ohio State, is chief technology officer. The company CEO is Ross Kayuha.
