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Danh Truong

Arizona State University

Mentor: Dr. Mehdi Nikkhah

"Studying the biochemical and biophysical influences of fibroblasts on cancer invasion in a tumor-stroma on a chip."

Danh Truong, a Ph.D student at Arizona State University has received a 2017-2018 IFER Fellowship for his project, “Studying the biochemical and biophysical influences of fibroblasts on cancer invasion in a tumor-stroma on a chip.” Danh recognized that many promising drug candidates for breast cancer fail in human clinical trials—in part because preclinical models do not accurately mimic interactions between the tumor and its microenvironment. With support from IFER, he will be creating a breast cancer model which aims to better understand these interactions and will investigate how they affect tumor growth and invasion. His model will also be used to study the responsiveness of cancer cells to drugs. Having a sophisticated cell-based model that incorporates interactions between the tumor and its microenvironment will advance our understanding of cancer progression and support efforts to discover potential effective treatments without the use of animals.