---
title: "Rowan Uni researchers 3D print tumor models to study bone cancer"
url: https://www.voxelmatters.com/rowan-uni-researchers-3d-print-tumor-models-to-study-bone-cancer/
date: 2026-08-09
modified: 2026-08-08
lang: en
author: "Joseph Caron-Dawe"
description: "Researchers at Rowan University are using 3D bioprinting to build living models of chondrosarcoma, a bone cancer that resists chemotherapy, radiation and most systemic treatment. The two-year project is being..."
categories:
  - "Bioprinting"
  - "Medical Research"
  - "Research & Education"
tags:
  - "future"
image: https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Rowan-University-Andrea-Vernengo-640x335.jpg
word_count: 342
---

# Rowan Uni researchers 3D print tumor models to study bone cancer

[Researchers at Rowan University](https://www.voxelmatters.com/phase3d-and-rowan-university-partner-on-real-time-metal-am-inspection/) are using 3D bioprinting to build living models of chondrosarcoma, a bone cancer that resists chemotherapy, radiation and most systemic treatment. The two-year project is being funded by the National Cancer Institute and led by Andrea Vernengo, an associate professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at Rowan's Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering, with co-principal investigator Tae Won B. Kim, an associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at Cooper Medical School of [Rowan University](https://www.voxelmatters.com/rowan-universitys-dehub-connects-ai-supercomputing-and-am/).

![Rowan researchers 3D print tumor models to study bone cancer](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Rowan-University-tumor-research-340x221.jpg)

Chondrosarcoma cells release signals that draw in mesenchymal stem cells, which normally produce bone and cartilage. The researchers' hypothesis is that this exchange reprograms the stem cells into “accomplices” that release tissue-degrading enzymes, helping the tumor invade surrounding tissue.

## Bioprinting a controllable microenvironment

Conventional flat cell culture cannot represent the distance, migration and oxygen gradients that define chondrosarcoma's dense, poorly vascularized matrix, since cells grown in a single layer sit adjacent to one another with no tissue to move through. 

To reproduce those conditions, [the team uses a 3D printer to deposit tumor cells and stem cells](https://www.voxelmatters.com/researchers-treat-cancer-using-3d-printed-tumors/) into separate clusters within a stack of ringed channels inside a hydrogel sample roughly one square centimeter in size.

Placing the two cell types at controlled, adjustable distances lets researchers loosen the gel's texture by changing its temperature, then observe whether the cells migrate toward each other over a 30-day period, tracking movement, metabolic activity and gene expression. Vernengo originally developed the hydrogel technique to study cartilage repair before Kim proposed applying it to chondrosarcoma.

## Molecular analysis and next steps

Two collaborators will handle the molecular side of the project. Sophia Orbach, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, will examine RNA within individual cells to track how the stem cells' identity changes over time, while Susy Kohout, an associate professor of biomedical sciences, will lead analysis of the molecular events driving that shift.

“We believe this back-and-forth communication essentially turns the stem cells into accomplices that help out the tumor cells,” Vernengo said, adding that understanding the process could reveal ways to interrupt it and slow tumor growth.