Oxygen Gradient Hydrogels to Study and Screen Potential Cancer Therapeutics

Unmet need
Hypoxia is a critical factor in the progression and metastasis of many cancers. Frequently, oxygen gradients develop in tumors as they grow beyond their vascular supply leading to heterogeneous areas of oxygen depletion.

Technology Overview
Johns Hopkins researchers have created a gradient hydrogel (collagen and gelatin) and observed that hypoxic gradients guide cancer cell motility and matrix remodeling through HIF1α activation.  They further found that in the hypoxic gradient, individual cells migrate more quickly, across longer distances, and in the direction of increasing oxygen tension. This platform has been used to screen potential cancer therapeutics ranging from small molecules to nanoparticles.

Stage of Development
Use of collagen and gelatin hydrogel to specifically control the gradient of the gel based off of the height and cell consumption rate, to properly mimic the cancer micro-environment for drug screening.

Publication
Lewis, D., et al., "Intratumoral oxygen gradients mediate sarcoma cell invasion," Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Aug 16;113(33):9292-7.