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A New Tumor Explant Platform

 
 

Our technology was built for the ex vivo culture, testing and evaluation of primary tumors. To achieve this, MISO Chip’s platform integrates 3 innovations: A new 3D cancer model, a microfluidic system and a patented process to transfer drug-treated MDTs into paraffin.

Our platform has the unique capacity to preserve viability of tumor fragments for 15 days ex vivo without the need of perfusion. This opens the door to the exploration of various schedules of combination drug regimens and the study of delayed cell fate decision.

 
 
 

The Micro-Dissected Tissue (MDT)

 

MDTs are a new cancer model that do not require disaggregation of the tissue. Hence, it preserves the real morphology and cell-cell interactions found in primary tumors. MDTs:

  • Preserve their viability and proliferation for 15 days ex vivo;

  • Are a 3D culture model;

  • Preserve the tumor microenvironement and its heterogeneity and;

  • Increase by 10X the number of experimental conditions tested on primary tissue compared to standard slice models.

Human or animal tumor biopsies are dissected into hundreds of fragments to form the MDTs. The MDTs are then loaded and trapped in our microfluidic device for further culture and treatments.

 

Paraffin-Embedded Lithography (PEL)

 

It is challenging to apply the standard FFPE protocol to sub-milimeter-size tissue (most 3D models). The PEL method is a patented process invented to circumvents this challenge. With the PEL method, MDTs are paraffin-embedded directly from our microfluidic system. This

  • Minimizes tissue manipulation and damage;

  • Reduces time and reagent consumption of 60% of the standard FFPE protocol and;

  • Reduces formalin fixation time from 24-48h to 30 minutes.

Within our microfluidic system, MDTs are spatially organized to fit a standard histology cassette. Once paraffin embedding is completed, the result is a Micro-Dissected TMA (MDTMA) compatible with standard clinical histopathology.

 

The MDT Chip

The MDT Chip is a microfluidic system designed to trap, culture and treat MDTs in a convenient way.

This device host 32 MDTs within 4 channels of 8 wells each. Four treatment conditions can be tested in octuplicate. The MDT Chip:

  • Is easy to use and doesn’t require any specialized equipment;

  • Reduces reagent consumptions (only 100 µL is needed to fill a channel) and;

  • Is designed to maximize tissue viability ex vivo without the need of perfusing the channels.

Based on numerical simulations of the metabolites transport to the tissue within the device, we designed the MDT Chip to maximize tissue viability ex vivo without the need for perfusing our system. The MDT Chip replaces the standard 48-well plate to enable long-term ex vivo culture (15 days) and the direct on-chip fixation and paraffination of the tissues.