A cancer biorobots simulator that uses PhysiCell. An app can be run at https://nanohub.org/tools/pc4cancerbots.
This model demonstrates how simple "rules" for chemical- and contact-based communication could be used for active delivery of therapeutic compounds, while overcoming traditional biotransport limits and using hypoxia to target delivery. It is based on a published PhysiCell example in Ghaffarizadeh et al. (2018) [1]. In this model, cancer cells (green) rapidly divide while consuming oxygen, which drives the emergence of hypoxic gradients. Greater availability of oxygen drives faster proliferation, while low oxygen can trigger necrotic death, creating a necrotic core (brown cells) in the center of the tumor. After initial growth, we "inject" a multicellular synthetic therapy.
In this (for now theoretical) synthetic therapy, "worker cells" (red) search for "cargo cells" (blue), form focal adhesions, and haul their cargo towards hypoxic (oxygen-depleted) regions in the tissue. Once they reach a region of sufficiently low oxygen, they release their cargo and resume their initial search for more cargo. Released cargo cells secrete a chemotherapeutic compound that can kill nearby tumor cells. (Cancer cells are shaded according to their level of therapy-induced damage.)
More details about the model can be found at https://nanohub.org/resources/pc4cancerbots/about
[1] Ghaffarizadeh A, Heiland R, Friedman SH, Mumenthaler SM, Macklin P (2018) PhysiCell: An open source physics-based cell simulator for 3-D multicellular systems. PLoS Comput Biol 14(2): e1005991. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005991
