Project overview

Cancer-associated cachexia (CAC) is a severe, multi-organ syndrome marked by involuntary weight loss due to muscle and fat wasting. It affects up to 80% of patients with advanced cancer, leading to frailty, poor treatment response, and reduced survival. Anorexia and fatigue worsen patient outcomes and increase healthcare burden. Despite its impact, CAC remains underdiagnosed and without approved therapies, largely due to late detection and poorly understood mechanisms. Inter-organ crosstalk via circulating factors appears central to CAC progression, but current animal and 2D models fail to capture human-specific complexity. More advanced in vitro systems are urgently needed to study tumour–host interactions and identify reliable markers of muscle atrophy.

This project aims to develop the first patient-specific Organ-on-Chip platform to model cancer-induced muscle wasting: the MOCAChip. This innovative device consists of exposing engineered 3D human skeletal muscle tissues to conditioned medium from pancreatic cancer organoids, simulating the early stages of cachexia. Through detailed analysis of functional, morphological, molecular, and metabolic changes in skeletal muscle, this study aims to create a controlled, human-relevant model of cancer-induced muscle atrophy.

The project combines the expertise of IBEC’s Biosensors for Bioengineering group in tissue engineering with IRB’s Complex Metabolic Diseases and Mitochondria group, which brings deep knowledge in muscle biology, metabolism, and cachexia. The ultimate goal is to establish a reproducible platform that reflects human pathology, advances understanding of disease mechanisms, and supports future drug discovery.