? Tissue Microfabrication Core The elucidation of biophysical mechanisms that lead to metabolic aberrations in tumors and, in turn, impact cancer progression, requires specialized capabilities for the manipulation of cells, biological materials, and tissues and for the development of computational models to evaluate hypotheses and interpret experimental data. Additionally, the assessment of the clinical relevance of these mechanisms and their translation toward therapeutic applications requires coordinated access to patient-derived samples with thorough clinical and genetic profiling and data basing. The Tissue Microfabrication Core will provide project investigators a shared infrastructure that satisfies these requirements. The Core will organize these capabilities into three distinct, but integrated aims that couple strongly to the projects and to the Biophysics and Metabolic Imaging Core:
Aim 1 will manage the acquisition, clinical and genomic characterization, data banking, and distribution of patient- derived tissues; the coordination of tissue transfer between sites will be a central task of this aim.
Aim 2 will support the development and fabrication of advanced culture platforms and microfluidic devices for the characterization of cells and biomaterials; it will also interact closely with Aim 1 on the development of new approaches for the propagation of patient-derived cells in engineered microenvironments and the Biophysics and Metabolic Imaging Core on compatibility with diverse modes of characterization.
Aim 3 will support metabolic analysis and experimental design and interpretation with a hierarchy of computational models spanning from linear models of metabolic flux through nonlinear models that allow for the incorporation of signaling and gene regulation to multiscale models of cell growth and interaction in the tumor microenvironment. This Core will work closely with the Biophysics and Metabolic Imaging Core on the development of new capabilities and the assurance of quality control across all Projects. The core leverages and unites established strengths at the host institutions: (i) clinical cancer care and translational cancer research at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) and, in particular, the Institute for Precision Medicine (IPM) run by WCMC and New York-Presbyterian Hospital; (ii) innovation in the application of micro- and nanofabrication to the life sciences at Cornell's Centers for Nanobiotechnology (NBTC) and Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNF); and (iii) leadership in the development of multi-scale computational models that link intracellular, intercellular and tissue scale processes at Purdue University. Integration between these capabilities in this Core will allow the Center to build a new dimension ? biophysical characterization ? into the Precision Medicine approach to cancer care.
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