Synthetic tumor immune microenvironments

Within the framework of this project, we develop artificial tumour immune microenvironments (TIMEs) for human pancreatic cancer organoids empowering structured and rational analysis of tumour immune adaptations Immune cells, the defining elements of an immune microenvironment are recreated as synthetic cells by bottom-up assembly from their single molecular building blocks The programmable synthetic cells are introduced into tumour organoids to function as lifelike leukocyte mimics presenting immune effector functions By this, a molecularly defined immune environment is created inside tumour models Multi-parametric screenings assess organoid development as well as immunotherapy response as a function of the synthetic microenvironment configuration This strategy links TIME architectures to cancer immune adaptation and evasion for quantitative description of therapy resistance The project strives to de-convolute the dynamic complexity of the tumour immune microenvironment towards a rational dissection Moreover, it contributes concepts for the assembly of hybrid biomaterials that embody essential features of living cells.