Fig. 3. Combinatorial drug treatment of human tumor organoids on microfluidic platform.

a On-platform drug treatment and stimulation with continuous fluorescence and phase imaging of organoids for the treatment duration. Each color represents a different drug formulation. Drug treatments on each channel can be changed on demand, creating time-varying drug treatments. Organoids can be analyzed for growth, morphology changes, or death. b Representative images (10×) of gemcitabine (100 nM) treated organoids for a 4-h drug pulse followed by normal growth media, continuous treatment of paclitaxel (10 nM) for 72-h, continuous treatment of gemcitabine (100 nM) for 72-h, a combination dose of gemcitabine (100 nM) + paclitaxel (10 nM) for 72-h, and negative and positive controls (staurosporine 10 mM). Caspase 3/7 reagent (green) used for apoptosis detection and propidium iodide (red) for dead cells along with phase contrast images (scale bar 100 μm). c Average caspase 3/7 signal over 72-h period of continuous single drug treatments for patient 1. d Average caspase 3/7 signal over 72-h period for a 4-h pulse of a single drug treatment followed by normal growth media for patient 1. e, f 72-h (e) and 4-h (f) drug treatments similarly examined for multiple known combinations of drugs. c–f All data presented as mean values ± SEM, n = 3, and normalized to positive control. Overall, combination chemotherapy treatment resulted in significantly increased apoptosis in tumor organoids compared to single drug treatments as expected. Source data for panels e, f are available.