Adam Melvin
LSU, College of Engineering, Cain Department of Chemical Engineering
Project Title
Design of a 3D co-culture platform to investigate breast cancer and stromal cell interactions
Funding Period
Pilot (June 7, 2022 - February 28, 2023)
Biosketch
Adam Melvin obtained a BS in Chemical Engineering and a BA in Chemistry from the University of Arizona, a MS in Chemical Engineering (with a minor in Biotechnology) and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University. He was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Departments of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering. In August of 2013, he joined the faculty in the Cain Department of Chemical Engineering at Louisiana State University. His research interests focus on biochemical/biomedical engineering including the design of peptide-based biosensors and therapeutics and the development of novel microfluidic platforms to model the breast cancer tumor microenvironment and perform high-throughput single cell analysis. He is an NSF CAREER awardee and has received numerous teaching and mentoring awards during his time at LSU. He is also the co-director of an NSF-sponsored REU site at LSU combining entrepreneurship and energy research.
Abstract
Estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer patients exhibit de novo or developed resistance to endocrine therapy which typically correlates with a poorer prognosis in patients along with increased cellular proliferation. Recent studies have identified that estrogen-mediated signaling within cancer cells and between cancer and stromal cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME) results in enhanced resistance to endocrine therapy. The work proposed here aims to develop a novel preclinical model for ER+ breast cancer with a specific focus on the role of stromal cells in the modulation of endocrine signaling in 3D breast cancer spheroids (BCSs) generated and interrogated using a droplet microfluidic trapping array and thiol acrylate hydrogel scaffold.