Immunotherapy on Chip: “Under the Microscope” Drug-induced Modulation of the Immune Response

We present our approach to perform and analyze immune system–cancer cross talk on chip experiments. Flanking in-vivo and in-vitro experiments with on chip co-cultures of primary human PBMC, immune cell subpopulations or murine spleen cells with melanoma, breast and colorectal cancer cells allowed us to test the on-chip model and to extract meaningful kinetics and behavioral data in the microfluidic controlled environments. The experimental setup allowed us to describe the effects of drugs or genetic modifications on the cell population crosstalk, highlighting or confirming important mechanisms in boosting the immune response against cancer. Our vision is that modern microscopy and on chip immune system reconstitution represent the needed bridge to link biology to advanced mathematical methods developed in complex system physics and to numerical simulation, allowing the development of integrated “cybernetic” models able to explore fundamental biology, and to tackle critical issues of drug testing with impact on clinical trials.