A Three-Dimensional Bioprinted Skin Melanoma Model for High-Throughput Drug Screening

A 96-well bioprinted, full-thickness human melanoma skin model enables dual-readout screening that selectively reduces melanoma cell viability while sparing stromal cells.

• Why it matters: Most advanced melanoma cases develop resistance, and the field lacks physiologically relevant yet scalable preclinical models that reproduce the tumor microenvironment for drug discovery.
• What they did: The platform bioprints a dermal layer with primary human dermal fibroblasts and melanoma tumor-like cell clusters at the dermal–epidermal interface, plus an air–liquid differentiated epidermis of primary human keratinocytes. Melanoma cells and fibroblasts express red and green fluorescent proteins, enabling automated confocal imaging to quantify tumor growth and stromal viability across multiple compound concentrations.
• The result: The dual counterscreen identifies melanoma-selective compounds versus nonspecific cytotoxic agents, supporting more clinically relevant therapeutic discovery for advanced melanoma.

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