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The cancer microenvironment influences tumor progression and metastasis and is pivotal to consider when designing in vivo-like cancer models. Current preclinical testing platforms for cancer drug development are mainly limited to 2D cell culture systems that poorly mimic physiological environments and traditional, low throughput animal models. The aim of this work was to produce a tunable testing platform based on 3D printed scaffolds (3DPS) with a simple geometry that, by extracellular components and response of breast cancer reporter cells, mimics patient-derived scaffolds (PDS) of breast cancer. Here, the biocompatible polysaccharide alginate was used as base material to generate scaffolds consisting of a 3D grid containing periostin and hydroxyapatite. Breast cancer cell lines (MCF7 and MDA-MB-231) produced similar phenotypes and gene expression levels of cancer stem cell, epithelial–mesenchymal transition, differentiation and proliferation markers when cultured on 3DPS and PDS, contrasting conventional 2D cultures. Importantly, cells cultured on 3DPS and PDS showed scaffold-specific responses to cytotoxic drugs (doxorubicin and 5-fluorouracil) that were different from 2D cultured cells. In conclusion, the data presented support the use of a tunable alginate-based 3DPS as a tumor model in breast cancer drug discovery.

Imbibition and evaporation of picoliter (pL) sized water droplets on paper media commonly used for inkjet printing is measured using high speed imaging system. Three types of uncoated and coated paper samples were chosen: multipurpose uncoated paper ͑80 g/m 2 ͒, matte coated paper ͑230 g / m 2 ͒, and gloss coated paper ͑240 g / m 2 ͒. As a reference, the rate of the evaporation process was quantified by using three impermeable solid substrates with different wetting characteristics, i.e., silicon, glass, and hydrophobized glass. It is shown that for water droplets of about 60 pL, imbibition is the dominant phenomenon on the matte and gloss coated paper leading to a total drying time (imbibition plus evaporation) of 10-15 ms for gloss coated paper and 30-150 ms on the matte coated paper. In the latter sample, different regimes in the imbibition process were correlated with the layered structure of the sample. The drying process on the multipurpose paper is dominated by evaporation, with initial drying rate of 0.4-0.6 pL/ms.

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