Home Department: Bioengineering
Mentor: Calvin Kuo (Medicine - Hematology)

"A Patient-Derived Organoid Platform to Study Tumor Microenvironment–Mediated Drug Resistance in PDAC"

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most lethal cancers, severely challenged by its highly fibrotic tumor microenvironment (TME) that impedes drug delivery. Over 90% of PDACs carry KRAS mutations, yet existing models fail to recapitulate the complexity of this TME. Alex will establish a patient-derived air-liquid interface organoid model that preserves both tumor cells and key stromal/immune components. Alex will then test the pan-KRAS inhibitor, Daraxonrasib, to characterize how PDAC stroma impacts drug penetration and access. This study provides a human-based translational platform to dissect TME-mediated drug resistance, aiming to overcome the therapeutic challenges of PDAC.