Morgridge Postdoctoral Fellow Jose Ayuso won the “Best Paper Award” at the 2020 Micro Total Analysis Systems conference for his work on cancer microenvironments in tumor evolution and progression.
The Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society sponsors the annual International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences, known as the Micro Total Analysis Systems (MicroTAS) conference. The MicroTAS conference has been held since 1994.
A summary of Ayuso’s presented work, titled “Microfluidics and Immunotherapy: Modelling Solid Tumors,” can be viewed online.
“I think it’s really rewarding because people recognize our hard work, and I think we’re doing something really relevant that I hope can have a positive impact on society. So that’s always good, something that encourages us to continue our work,” says Ayuso.
“Something that is truly unique about Morgridge is the capacity to collaborate with different researchers.”
Jose Ayuso
Under the direction of Melissa Skala, Ayuso also works with David Beebe and Kari Wisinski at the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (UW–Madison) to generate advanced microfluidic cell culture platforms to recreate the tumor architecture. Currently, they are using different optical microscopy techniques, like fluorescence lifetime imaging, to study the cell behavior within microfluidic cell culture systems.
“Jose has a unique ability to bring new technologies to cancer research, and he serves as an important bridge between my lab and Dave Beebe’s lab,” says Skala. “He is a fantastic scientist with enormous energy, so I’m not surprised that the judges were impressed with him!”
Ayuso and his colleagues strive to understand how various cancers bypass the built-in mechanisms of the immune system, with the ultimate goal of limiting the ways that cancer cells can bypass these mechanisms.
“I would say the critical aspect from my perspective is the communication and interdisciplinary aspect that Morgridge brings to the table,” says Ayuso. “Something that is truly unique about Morgridge is the capacity to collaborate with different researchers. I think the Morgridge postdoctoral fellowship program is a perfect example of this. There is no way we could’ve done this research without all the people involved.”