3D Models

Gunay, Gokhan, Hande A. Kirit, Advika Kamatar, Ofelya Baghdasaryan, Seren Hamsici, and Handan Acar. The Effects of Size and Shape of the Ovarian Cancer Spheroids on the Drug Resistance and Migration. Gynecologic Oncology 159, no. 2 (2020): 563–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygyno.2020.09.002.

High fatality in ovarian cancer is attributed to metastasis, propagated by the release of multicellular aggregates/spheroids into the peritoneal cavity and their subsequent mesothelial invasion of peritoneal organs. Spheroids are therefore a common and clinically relevant in vitro model for ovarian cancer research.

The results described in this manuscript significantly enhance our understanding of the relationship between spheroid size/morphology and drug resistance. In addition, we also showed how the expression levels of these markers correlate with the migration potential of the ovarian cancer spheroids.

Kamatar, Advika, Gokhan Gunay, and Handan Acar. Natural and Synthetic Biomaterials for Engineering Multicellular Tumor Spheroids. Polymers 12, no. 11 (2020): 2506. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12112506.

This review evaluates the current state of biomaterial-based multicellular tumor spheroids formation, including advantages and disadvantages of the different biomaterials and their recent applications to the field of cancer research, with a focus on the past five years. We also added the cost comparison for different methods.

Yan, F.; Gunay, G.; Valerio, T. I.; Wang, C.; Wilson, J. A.; Haddad, M. S.; Watson, M.; Connell, M. O.; Davidson, N.; Fung, K.-M.; Acar, H.; Tang, Q. Characterization and Quantification of Necrotic Tissues and Morphology in Multicellular Ovarian Cancer Tumor Spheroids Using Optical Coherence Tomography. Biomed. Opt. Express, BOE 2021, 12 (6), 3352–3371. https://doi.org/10.1364/BOE.425512.

In collaboration with the Tang Lab, we studied the imaging and characterization of morphological and physiological features of multicellular tumor spheroids of ovarian cancer, prepared in vitro.

Despite the importance of high-throughput 3D tumor models of ovarian cancer, the high-resolution imaging of the core of these models is an obstacle. In this paper, we used a label-free noninvasive swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) imaging platform.

In this paper, we showed that OCT can serve as a promising imaging modality to visualize and characterize morphological and physiological features of multicellular tumor spheroids. This paper provides an example for high-throughput cancer research in vitro and aiding in drug development.


Bensen, Ryan C., Gokhan Gunay, Matthew C. Finneran, Isha Jhingan, Handan Acar, and Anthony WG Burgett. "Small molecule targeting of oxysterol-binding protein (OSBP)-related protein 4 and OSBP inhibits ovarian cancer cell proliferation in monolayer and spheroid cell models." ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science 4, no. 2 (2021): 744-756. https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsptsci.0c00207

The development of precision drugs for the selective treatment of ovarian cancer will require targeting proliferative factors selectively expressed in ovarian tumors or targeting unique physiological microenvironments specific for ovarian tumors.

In this paper, in collaboration with the Burgett Lab, we reported that oxysterol-binding protein (OSBP)-related protein 4 (ORP4) is a potential druggable precision target in ovarian cancer cells. this paper provides an example study of using multicellular tumor spheroids as high-throughput in vitro models for studying small drug efficacies.