Micromechanical Regulation of Tumor Immune Microenvironment

Presenter: Aino Peura, University of Helsinki | UPM Biomedicals 8th Annual Conference, 2022

Aino Peura is a MD-PhD-student from University of Helsinki and is just starting her third year of PhD in Professor Juha Klefström's group under supervision of senior researcher Pauliina Munne. Her thesis focuses on how stiffness regulated pathways alter breast cancer cell identity and anticancer immune response. Moreover, she is interested how these responses can be mimicked pharmacologically. With a unique 3D-culture model, PDEC (patient-derived explant culture) she is modelling the tumor-microenvironment interaction focusing on the tumor cell phenotypic plasticity and tumour resident immune cells in different 3D matrices including GrowDex-hydrogels.