Breast-Carcinoma-on-Chip
Although adipose tissue is a crucial component that serves as an active endocrine organ in the breast cancer microenvironment, not much is understood in terms of adipocytes role in breast cancer progression and metastasis, as the recapitulation of tumor heterogeneity and its complex microenvironment constitutes a major challenge. Moreover, no organs-on-chips system has yet achieved the integration of a physiological tumor-adipose crosstalk in a perfused microenvironment and simultaneously captured the entire complexity of the breast tissue.

In this project, we combine human primary breast cancer organoids and adipose tissue to generate an immunocompetent Breast-Carcinoma-on-Chip model. This platform will enable the investigation of the underlying mechanism of adipose-carcinoma interactions to determine their effect on breast cancer progression. Furthermore, patient-specific effects driven by disease states (healthy vs. obese vs. diabetic), age (pre- and postmenopausal), as well as ethnicity can be recapitulated in this model as a guide for personalized cancer treatment.

Funding: H2020 - IMI2 imSAVAR; WellcomeLeap HOPE;

Publications

J. Marzi, M. B. Stope, M. Henes, A. Koch, T. Wenzel, M. Holl, S. L. Layland, F. Neis, H. Bösmüller, F. Ruoff, M. Templin, B. Krämer, A. Staebler, J. Barz, D. A. Carvajal Berrio, M. Enderle, P. Loskill, S. Y. Brucker, K. Schenke-Layland, M. Weiss
Non-invasive Physical Plasma (NIPP) as Innovative and Tissue-preserving Therapy for Women Positive for Cervical intraepithelial Neoplasia
Cancers, 2022, 14, 1933, https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers14081933

M. Alb, K. Reiche, M. Rade, K. Sewald, P. Loskill, M. Cipriano, T.I. Maulana, A.D. van der Meer, H.J. Weener, L.-A. Clerbaux, B. Fogal, N. Patel, K. Adkins, E. Lund, E. Perkins, C. Cooper, J. van den Brulle, H. Morgan, Z. Rubic-Schneider, H. Ling, K. DiPetrillo, J. Moggs, U. Köhl, M. Hudecek
Novel strategies to assess cytokine release mediated by chimeric antigen receptor T cells based on the adverse outcome pathway concept
J. Immunotoxicol., 2024, 21, S13–S28, https://doi.org/10.1080/1547691X.2024.2345158

M. van der Moolen, A. Lovera, F. Ersoy, S. Mommo, P. Loskill, P. Cesare
Cancer-mediated axonal guidance of sensory neurons in a microelectrode-based innervation MPS
Biofabrication, 2024, 16, 025013, https://doi.org/10.1088/1758-5090/ad218a

T.I. Maulana, C. Teufel, M. Cipriano, J. Roosz, L. Lazarevski, F.E. van den Hil, L. Scheller, V. Orlova, A. Koch, M. Hudecek, M. Alb, P. Loskill
Breast cancer-on-chip for patient-specific efficacy and safety testing of CAR-T cells
Cell Stem Cell, 2024, 31, 989-1002, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2024.04.018

C. Durant, J. Iorio, C. Capitani, T. Lottini, M. Martinelli, J. Roosz, N. Anderle, T.I. Maulana, P. Loskill, R. Colasurdo, C. Sala, L. Magni, A. Arcangeli
Antineoplastic activity of a novel tri-specific single chain antibody targeting the hERG1/β1 integrin complex and TRAIL receptors
Mol. Cancer Ther., 2025, 24, 1584–1599., https://doi.org/10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-24-0646

T.I. Maulana, N.R. Wevers, T. Kristoforus, M. Chandler, H. L Lanz, J. Joore, P. Vulto, R. Villenave, S. Kustermann, P. Loskill, K. M Bircsak
Opportunities for microphysiological systems in toxicity testing of new drug modalities
Annu. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxicol., 2025, 65, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-pharmtox-061724-080621

N. Ferreira, D. Agorku, A. Rosa, J. Roosz, L. Christ, N. Anderle, A. Kulkarni, A. Hussein, S.S. Sayedipour, O.F. Luna, T. Legler, P. Ströbel, F. Albericio, L. Cruz, P. Beckhove, P. Loskill, F. Alves, M.A. Markus, F. Ramos-Gomes
Advanced Human Immune Cell-Organoid Co-Cultures for Functional Testing of Cancer Nanovaccines
Adv. Sci., 2026, in press, https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202515199

C. Allgöwer, M. A. Mulaw, J. Nagai, S. Wiedenmann, E. A. Ringel, B. Ferrara, L. Piemonti, T. I. Maulana, L. T. Ferreira, A. Flinders, C. Teufel, L. Reichardt, P. B. Lopatta, D. Srinivasan, A. Lahusen, N. T. Gaisa, A. Beck, J. Lindenmayer, M. K. Melzer, E. Zimmer, E. Roger, S. Heller, M. Löhr, S. Liebau, P. Loskill, Y.-N. Lin, P. R. Camisa, C. Jorgensen, S. Crippa, M. Meier, M. Hohwieler, I. G. Costa, M. Breunig, A. Kleger
An oncogenic KRAS-driven secretome involving TNFα promotes niche preparation prior to pancreatic cancer onset
Mol. Cancer, 2026, in press, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12943-025-02541-1

I.T. Maulana, E. Kromidas, L. Wallstabe, M. Cipriano, M. Alb, C. Zaupa, M. Hudescek, B. Fogal, P. Loskill
Immunocompetent cancer-on-chip models to assess immuno-oncology therapy
Adv. Drug. Deliv. Rev., 2021, 173, 281-305, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addr.2021.03.015