TOPIC #355 - SBIR PHASE II - A 3D PERFUSABLE PLATFORM FOR HTS ACROSS DIVERSE RACIAL/ETHNIC CANCER SPE

Prostate cancerPCaincidence and mortality in African American men is two times greater than men of other races ethnicities in the United StatesElucidating the underlying mechanisms for this cancer health disparityCHDis critical to patient treatment and improved patient outcomehowever there are no in vitro models available to adequately recapitulate the PCa tumor microenvironment across races ethnicitiesIn Phase I we aimed to address this need by optimizing culture conditions of aD in vitro model systemthe PCa OncoPlateWe developed four PDX derived PCa models of varied racial ethnic backgrounds with stromal fibroblasts and endothelial blood vessel mimics under continuous perfusionViable for at leastdayscultures maintained phenotypic PCa features and responded to chemotherapiesThis study will establishPCa PDX modelsAfrican AmericanCaucasianHispanicAsianand optimizeD culture conditions in the OncoPlate along with stromalendothelialand immune cellsPCa behavior including cell proliferation and response to chemotherapies will be evaluatedOnce executed these studies will establish the PCa OncoPlate as a high throughput screening platform for use by pharmaceutical companies and academic laboratories to investigate the CHD and ultimately select the appropriate therapeutics for African American men suffering from PCa