In a new publication in Integrative Biology, Ricke lab collaborator, Dr. David Beebe, describes a series of assays, using a reconfigurable microscale assay platform (i.e. Stacks), which allows the study of immune cell infiltration in vitro with spatiotemporal manipulations. For the first time in vitro, the Stacks infiltration assays reveal that primary tumor-associated fibroblasts, unlike fibroblasts from the benign prostate tissues, prohibit infiltration of neutrophils, facilitate monocyte adhesion, and direct anti-inflammatory monocyte activation in a patient-specific fashion. Results show that fibroblasts play a regulatory role in immune cell infiltration and that Stacks has the potential to predict individual patients’ cancer-immune response. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33822934/