Members of the Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis research program at IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center focus on cancer cell–stroma interactions, systemic consequences of metastatic disease, and basic science that leads to clinical trials.
Harikrishna Nakshatri, PhD, and colleagues are discovering new ways to find out how effective a drug might be against cancer. Their findings have been published in the journal Science Advances. “This paper completely changes the way we need to collect tumor tissues and test for drug sensitivity,” Dr. Nakshatri said.
Nationally recognized for her research in pancreatic cancer, Melissa Fishel, PhD, is interested in understanding how tumors can survive in the presence of stressors by investigating the cancer-driving signaling pathways that contribute to survival.
Dr. Fishel and her team developed spherical 3D tumor models to test different combination therapies. These models are created from patient samples and more closely resemble the structure of real tumors than traditional, single-layer cell cultures.
...the more accurate we can make our model systems, the faster new treatments can move from the lab to real patients.
Melissa Fishel, PhD
