Challenges in the multiscale modeling of tumor growth: from patient-specific models to tumor organoids

The next webinar organised by the new VPHi Young Scientists Committee will take place on Tuesday 6 May 2025 at 11:00 am CEST and it will feature Professor Jose Manuel Garcia Aznar from the University of Zaragoza, presenting "Challenges in the multiscale modeling of tumor growth: from patient-specific models to tumor organoids". The webinar is free and it will moderated by Yogesh Kumaran from the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences.

Register at this link!

Abstract:

The simulation of tumor growth presents many challenges from a modeling point of view, both when performing in vitro models and when corresponding to tumors in patients. Obviously, the difficulties are much more relevant for patient-specific models because the amount of information available to build and validate the model is much smaller. However, modeling in vitro tumor organoids provides much more data that, when combined with deep learning tools, may allow us to delve deeper into the mechanisms by which tumor cells self-organize to form tumors as a function of the microenvironment.

In both cases, the challenges focus on the highly dynamic and heterogeneous behavior present in the tumor, which requires involving multiple temporal and spatial scales, generally including extracellular, cellular and intracellular variables.

In this talk, several examples will be presented where the modeling of tumor growth under both conditions has been studied.

Bio:

José Manuel García-Aznar received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 1999 from University of Zaragoza, where he serves since 2008 as Full Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. In these years, he has been visiting researcher at Keele University (2001), KU Leuven (2012), Cambridge University (2015), NUI Galway (2017) and University of Oxford (2019). In 2004, he was elected as Council Member of the European Society of Biomechanics (ESB) (2004-2012), and finally as Vice-President (2008-2012). In 2012 he was awarded by the ERC with a Starting Grant project (INSILICO-CELL) that allows him extending his computational expertise to 3D cell cultures. More recently, in 2021, he was awarded with an ERC Advanced Grant (ICoMICS) focused on mechano-immunotherapy. He has published over 160 peer-reviewed papers. His research interests focus on computational modelling of tumour growth, hard tissues mechanics, mechanobiology of skeletal tissue regeneration and tissue engineering, tissue growth and development and, cell mechanics. Most recently his research work has also focused on the combination of computational models and microfluidics-based experiments in order to investigate the mechanisms that regulate tumour progression, metastasis and immunotherapy.

This webinar is organised within the VPHi Keynote Webinar series, a quarterly event organized by the VPHi Young Scientists Committee that provides a forum for access to senior community members and their expert competence for chiefly young scientists, but also to the VPH community as a whole.

With the series, VPHi wishes to:

• Offer added value to prospective young scientists through core content
• Create visibility of VPH knowledge dissemination for external stakeholders
• Highlight excellence within the VPHi, additionally providing student members with a label of quality
• Promote scientific interaction between junior and senior community members and across VPHi disciplines

Are you interested in a specific topic or would you like to learn more about certain research?

You can propose names and topics by sending an email to student.committee@vph-institute.org