Personalized Medicine: Redefining Cancer Treatment and Modeling  

Despite significant improvements in research and development in the cancer field, about 95% of oncology drugs in clinical trials fail to receive Food and Drug Administration approval. The tumor microenvironment (TME) is increasingly recognized as a major regulator of tumor progression, drug resistance, and cancer immune escape. A growing number of studies have focused on the TME to explore the complex mechanisms underlying disease progression and drug resistance to predict clinical outcome. Furthermore, the genetic profile of cancer patients differs widely, which is evident by the variable clinical response each patient has to different therapies. Therefore, the role of personalized tumor heterogeneity on drug resistance is still undefined. Part of the issue is the lack of suitable preclinical models that can reliably predict the efficacy of anticancer drugs in humans. Compelling evidence suggests that three-dimensional (3D) cell-based assays can better resemble cellular and physical features manifested in tumors while cutting time, animal use, and cost. Our lab is developing personalized 3D models of the tumor microenvironment in order to more accurately mimic cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. Through these culture models, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of the role of the tumor microenvironment and their accessory cells during cancer progression, drug resistance and cancer immunology for each individual patient. Our goal is to provide a human surrogate model that could support the prediction of drug efficacy, thereby saving the patient from trial and error treatments, and ultimately serve as a guide for the selection of patient-targeted drug therapies.    Dr. Pilar de la Puente is a biomedical engineer and cancer biologist with a PhD in Animal Medicine and Surgery with emphasis in Biomedical Engineering from University of Salamanca (Spain). Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine and principal investigator at Sanford Research. Her work focuses on the development of novel, human, precision-based models that more closely replicate a tissue microenvironment for in vitro assays. Her research goal is to use these tools to empower biological research, drug discovery and personalized medicine in health and disease. She heads a research laboratory investigating the role of tumor microenvironment (TME) in cancer progression, drug resistance and cancer immunology. During her career, Dr. De la Puente has received prestigious awards recognizing her contributions to science including a postdoctoral fellowship from the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) and the international Young Researcher Lush Prize 2018 supporting initiatives to end or replace animal testing. Dr. de la Puente is an active member in the scientific community including ECUSA, Women in Cancer Research, Women in Science and Entrepreneurship, and Minorities in Cancer Research. She is an active entrepreneur; she is cofounder and scientific advisor of the biotech company Cellatrix LLC and also holds 3 patents and 2 provisional applications.