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Tumor Therapeutic and Metabolic Engineering Lab
Application of chemical engineering principles to the study of tumor formation and treatment is fertile new ground for research and is necessary for the advancement of cancer therapy. Standard cancer therapies often fail because of spatial heterogeneity of nutrients, wastes, and therapeutics. Transport barriers prevent therapeutic agents from reaching effective concentrations throughout tumors. In my laboratory we characterize and utilize tumor heterogeneity to develop novel cancer therapies that overcome the limitations of current cancer therapies. Unique three-dimensional tumor models are designed to mimic the metabolic variations observed in tumors in vivo. The metabolic profiles of the tumor models, both in vitro and in vivo, are characterized using fluorescence microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and metabolic flux analysis.