A New Frontier in Cancer: Engineering Smarter, Faster, More Human-Centered Research
Researchers, engineers, clinicians and policy leaders gathered in Tampa for the fourth annual Cancer Engineering Summit, a three-day event focusing on how engineering-driven innovation is reshaping the future of cancer research. A centerpiece of this year’s meeting was the New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) Symposium, which highlighted emerging technologies designed to reduce reliance on animal testing while accelerating the path from discovery to patient care.
Enjoyed chairing the first session of the #NAMsSymposium! This session laid an important foundation—focusing on regulatory realities, engineering rigor and moving beyond boutique science. Excited to have such esteemed experts here at @MoffittNews today as we explore the evolving… pic.twitter.com/96aX6sN5xK
— W. Gregory Sawyer (@ProfGregSawyer) February 9, 2026
For decades, animal models have been a cornerstone of cancer research. Yet many therapies that appear promising in animals do not produce the same results in people. As cancer treatments become more targeted and biologically complex, researchers are increasingly turning to human-relevant systems that better replicate tumor biology and patient-specific responses.
Moving Beyond Animal Models
The NAMs Symposium was the leadoff event at the summit, convening leaders from government, academia and industry to explore how advanced laboratory platforms, biomaterials, computational modeling and artificial intelligence are modernizing preclinical research. These approaches aim to improve predictive accuracy, lower development costs, shorten timelines to clinical trials and significantly decrease the use of animals.
“Cancer is a uniquely human disease,” said Greg Sawyer, PhD, co-host of the symposium and chair of the Bioengineering Department at Moffitt Cancer Center. “If we want therapies that truly work in patients, we need research systems that better represent the human tumor environment.”
Sawyer’s lab develops three-dimensional engineered tumor systems that re-create key features of human cancers in the laboratory. Unlike traditional two-dimensional cell cultures or some animal models, these 3D platforms allow researchers to study how cancer cells interact with surrounding tissue and immune cells. His team also designs biomaterial-based platforms that mimic the physical and mechanical properties of human tissue, enabling more realistic testing of cancer therapies.
By evaluating drug response and resistance in these engineered systems, researchers can identify promising treatments earlier and potentially reduce costly late-stage clinical failures.
Setting a National Agenda for NAMs
The NAMs Symposium was co-hosted by Jenn Bonilla, PhD, vice president of portfolio strategy in Moffitt’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Office, who emphasized the broader strategic importance of the event.
“We’re excited to convene industry thought leaders to help us better understand how to think about this demand signal we’ve gotten both from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the last year to fully explore the potential for NAMs to inform translation and other important clinical questions,” Bonilla said. “Moffitt expects to lead in this space from an oncology perspective, and we're excited to bring people together to surface the field-shaping questions that will set the agenda for everyone working to develop more and better cures for cancer.”
The #NAMsSymposium is exploring the future of animal free models in cancer research and the evolving field of new approach methodologies. Symposium co-host, Jenn Bonilla, PhD, shares more about this inaugural meeting and the collaborative conversations shaping what’s next. pic.twitter.com/etyUxrhEII
— Moffitt Cancer Center (@MoffittNews) February 9, 2026
Engineering the Next Generation of Cancer Models
Looking ahead, speakers emphasized that engineering collaboration will be essential to fabricating, scaling and manufacturing realistic NAMs platforms.
At the symposium, Bruce Tromberg, PhD, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at NIH, highlighted the importance of cross-disciplinary expertise to move these technologies from proof-of-concept systems into scalable research tools.
Can new approach methodologies (NAMs) make a difference for cancer patients?
— Moffitt Cancer Center (@MoffittNews) February 9, 2026
At the #NAMsSymposium, Bruce Tromberg, PhD (@NIH @NIBIBgov) highlights how collaboration with engineers is critical to fabricating, scaling and manufacturing realistic NAMs. pic.twitter.com/H3R4DVZbfr
Future advancements may include integrating advanced sensors and imaging technologies with fluid and process engineering to create feedback-controlled systems capable of monitoring tumor behavior in real time. Researchers are also exploring approaches to create digital twins, which are computational counterparts paired with laboratory models that allow measurable and adjustable parameters.
Other innovations discussed included personalized, manufacturable and scalable NAMs with adjustable cell types and materials tailored to individual patients, along with advances in synthetic biology and mechanobiology to optimize how engineered tumor systems function and evolve.
“One of the most exciting parts is there is enormous expertise and energy around trying to recapitulate that biologic system of cancer and put it in a controllable setting to do experiments,” Tromberg said. “To build a NAM from a patient and figure out if that patient will uniquely respond to a type of therapy.”
From Mechanisms to Intervention
While the NAMs discussions centered on modeling and translation, clinicians emphasized what these advances ultimately mean for patients.
Among the featured speakers was Andrew von Eschenbach, MD, former commissioner of the FDA and former director for the National Cancer Institute. He reflected on how understanding cancer at the genetic, molecular and cellular levels has transformed the field.
“As a clinician, I can see what has been a formidable problem, cancer as a disease. We’ve been struggling with it for decades,” von Eschenbach said. “But today, unlike the past, where we were observing manifestations and then trying to figure out what to do about what we could see or feel, we now are, for the first time, understanding mechanisms at the genetics, molecular and cellular level as to how that cancer cell is doing what it does.”
Live from #CancerEngineeringSummit: Andrew von Eschenbach, MD (@samhealth) shares how deeper understanding of cancer at the genetic, molecular and cellular level is opening new ways to intervene across the disease process—from detection to prevention. pic.twitter.com/HrDhQbWfrK
— Moffitt Cancer Center (@MoffittNews) February 10, 2026
That mechanistic understanding, he explained, opens the door to strategic intervention across the disease process.
“Cancer is a disease process. It begins with susceptibility at the genetic level and then a series of steps of transformation, progression and metastasis,” he said. “We can now intervene in that process in multiple ways, in multiple places. We can detect, eliminate and modulate that process and prevent suffering and death. That’s the future.”
Von Eschenbach also described how bioengineering is expanding the tools available to fight cancer. Researchers are exploring how different forms of physical energy including light, sound, ultrasound, magnetic fields and electrical stimulation can alter biological systems in precise ways.
Ultrasound can destroy tumors, open the blood-brain barrier to allow chemotherapy to reach brain cancers or potentially stimulate immune responses. Other forms of energy are being studied to influence cellular behavior and neurological function.
“What we’re seeing here in this whole field of bioengineering is not one thing. It’s a whole portfolio of things,” von Eschenbach said. “Each one of which could be almost magical in its effects.”
Mechanics, Materials and Metabolism
The final day of the conference also underscored how cancer engineering extends beyond tumor modeling alone. In a session titled “Mechanics, Materials and Metabolism,” chaired by MG Finn, PhD, regents’ professor at the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech University, speakers explored how physical forces, material properties and cellular metabolism intersect with immune function and cancer biology.
“This kind of thing just opens my eyes to how I need to think about how metabolism affects what we do,” Finn said. “In particular, my group does a lot of immunology. The idea of impacting metabolic pathways as a way to sensitize the immune system and control its response to cancer is a new way of thinking for us.”
At the #CancerEngineeringSummit, M.G. Finn (@GeorgiaTech) reflects on the session he moderated, “Science Applied to Life: 3M – Mechanics, Materials and Metabolism,” highlighting how interdisciplinary science is shaping the future of cancer engineering. pic.twitter.com/zjuozaZvpj
— Moffitt Cancer Center (@MoffittNews) February 11, 2026
Designing a More Predictive Future
Together, the NAMs Symposium and Cancer Engineering Summit highlighted a transformative moment in cancer research. By combining engineering innovation, artificial intelligence, metabolism research and human-relevant biological systems, scientists are building smarter, more predictive platforms designed with patients in mind from the start.
As NAMs and bioengineering approaches continue to evolve, they may redefine how therapies are developed, reducing reliance on animal models, improving translational success and moving promising treatments to patients faster and more precisely than ever before.
