Cancer Stem Cell Bioengineering

The KIM LABORATORY is working on bioengineering of cancer stem cells (CSCs) to better assist translational medicine. CSCs are recognized as the pluripotent, stem-cell-like cells responsible for cancer relapse in patients, often persisting even after the most rigorous treatment. Despite this, pharmaceutical drug development traditionally relies on decades-old cancer cell lines—primarily because CSCs are challenging to acquire and limited in number. It is now increasingly recognized that effective drug development must pivot to using CSCs to target the "real culprit" in tumors and improve patient outcomes. Thus, we aim to bridge the gap between oncologists and engineers by developing various bioengineered CSC-based disease models that more accurately recapitulate patient tissues. Recent efforts include the development of brain tumor organoids and fluid shear stress-based breast cancer metastasis models.

Image credit: Peter Znamenskiy

Last updated: 11 Oct 2025

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