Researcher uses microfluidic chips to simulate environments metastatic prostate cancer travels through
Gevick Safarians remembers the conversations. Patients dealing with cancer and other diseases with very poor prognoses, hoping not for years but for months—a little more time to settle their affairs, to figure out who would care for their pets. Those encounters stayed with him.
Gevick Safarians, a third-year M.D.-Ph.D. student at Virginia Commonwealth University, has dedicated his research to simulating the complex environments that metastatic prostate cancer travels through in the human body. Patients with very poor prognoses hope for a few extra months to settle their affairs, and Safarians believes his work can provide that additional chance at life.
His research focuses on creating three-dimensional microphysiological systems using microfluidic chips to study cancer progression and collective cell migration. These chips contain channels about 100 microns wide, allowing for the flow of fluid and the culture of living cells. The chips are designed to mimic the chemical and mechanical properties of real tissue, replicating the heterogeneous environments cancer cells encounter as they spread through the blood and reach various organs like the bone, liver, or lungs.
One key factor Safarians is investigating is fluid shear stress, the mechanical pressure cancer cells experience as they move through fluid. In the bloodstream, cancer cells face high levels of shear stress, but when they reach lower-flow environments like bone or lung tissue, they experience much less resistance. By simulating these different conditions using the microfluidic chips, Safarians can study how varying fluid shear stress and other factors impact cancer cell behavior.
The chips also allow Safarians to vary the surrounding matrix, including stiffness, fiber alignment, and chemical composition, while maintaining the cells in three-dimensional spheroid clusters instead of flat layers. This more realistic representation of tissue structure helps researchers understand how these factors influence metastatic behavior and treatment resistance.
Safarians' work is part of the Wright Center's T32 Training Program, which emphasizes bridging the gap between laboratory discoveries and patient care. The program focuses on community-engaged research, team science, and clinician mentorship, ensuring that Safarians considers the broader implications of his research and the communities it serves.
Safarians is driven by the stories of patients he met during his clinical training, and he believes that involving patients and community members in the research process is crucial for creating meaningful breakthroughs.
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