Shira Landau, PhD
Project Title
Two-Way Communication Between the Heart and Colorectal Cancer
About the Investigator
Dr. Shira Landau is a biomedical engineer and Assistant Professor at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on developing advanced laboratory models that mimic human tissues to better understand disease mechanisms. Dr. Landau received her PhD from the Technion and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Toronto, where she led research on vascularized organ-on-chip systems. Her work combines engineering, biology, and medicine to study how different organs interact during disease and treatment.
About the Research
Cancer treatments have greatly improved survival, but they often come with serious side effects. One of the most important is damage to the heart. When cancer therapy harms the heart, doctors may need to reduce or stop treatment, which can limit how well the cancer is controlled. This problem is especially common in older patients and in people who already have heart disease.
Recent research suggests that the relationship between cancer and heart disease may work in both directions. While cancer treatments can injure the heart, heart injury itself may also influence how cancer grows and responds to treatment. This concept is known as reverse cardio-oncology. Studies in animals suggest that heart injury can release signals into the bloodstream that promote the growth of certain cancers, including cancers of the colon. However, it is still unclear how this process works in humans.
This project focuses on colorectal cancer, one of the most common cancers worldwide and a disease often treated with drugs that place stress on the heart and blood vessels. The research will use a new laboratory system called an organ-on-chip, which connects small pieces of human heart tissue and colorectal cancer tissue through tiny channels that mimic blood flow. This allows researchers to study how signals from an injured heart affect colorectal cancer cells, and how cancer and its treatment affect heart function, in a controlled human-relevant setting.
The study will also examine macrophages, immune cells that play key roles in both heart injury and cancer progression. By understanding how the heart, cancer, and immune system interact, this research aims to improve prediction of treatment side effects and support safer, more effective cancer care in the future.
