Growing Desmoplastic Three-Dimensional Pancreatic Cancer Spheroids from Co-Culture

3D spheroid cultures are increasingly used to answer mechanistic questions about tumor growth and serve to screen new therapeutics. Therefore, it is critical that these models are clinically representative. We focus on replicating the desmoplasia seen in many cancers, including pancreatic cancer, using this technique.

Spheroid cultures have evolved to incorporate patient-derived cells, complex co-cultures with immune cells, and physiological structures like vasculature. Additionally, microfluidic technology is employed for high-throughput screening and creating organ on-a-chip systems. Multi-omic profiling in spheroids is now utilized to gain mechanistic insights.