Decades of efforts in engineering in vitro cancer models have advanced drug discovery and the insight into cancer biology. However, the establishment of preclinical models that enable fully recapitulating the tumor microenvironment remains challenging owing to its intrinsic complexity. Recent progress in engineering techniques has allowed the development of a new generation of in vitro preclinical models that can recreate complex in vivo tumor microenvironments and accurately predict drug responses, including spheroids, organoids, and tumor‐on‐a‐chip. These biomimetic 3D tumor models are of particular interest as they pave the way for better understanding of cancer biology and accelerating the development of new anticancer therapeutics with reducing animal use. Here, the recent advances in developing these in vitro platforms for cancer modeling and preclinical drug screening, focusing on incorporating hydrogels are reviewed to reconstitute physiologically relevant microenvironments. The combination of spheroids/organoids with microfluidic technologies is also highlighted to better mimic in vivo tumors and discuss the challenges and future directions in the clinical translation of such models for drug screening and personalized medicine.
Liquid marbles have recently attracted much interest in various scientific fields because of their isolated environment and robustness. However, conventional liquid marbles lack a reliable heating mechanism, which is critical in many potential applications. Here, the development of iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanocube‐coated liquid marbles (iNLMs), which can be homogeneously heated with an alternating magnetic field (AMF) to as high as 86 °C, is reported. Through tuning the power of the AMF, the iNLMs canbe heated to desired temperatures in controllable patterns. Furthermore, multicenter and selective heating is realized based on the unique magnetothermal properties of iNLMs. As heatable miniature reactors, the iNLMs are further demonstrated to facilitate the kinetic study of temperature‐dependent chemical reactions. DNA amplification is successfully performed in liquid marbles, achieving a 25% superior amplification rate compared with that in a common thermal cycler. These results confirm the feasibility of coating liquid marbles with Fe3O4 nanocubes to form delicate magnetothermal miniature reactors, which provides a reliable method of applying liquid marbles in areas such as biosensor technology, point‐of‐care testing, and theranostics.
Lithium salts are commonly used as medication for Bipolar Disorder (BD) and depression. However, there are limited methods to quantify intracellular lithium. Most methods to analyze intracellular electrolytes require tedious...
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