This study uses the mouse model MMTV-PyMT of breast cancer and human biopsies from breast cancer and gastric intestinal metaplasia Raw sequence reads

To fully investigate cellular responses within tissues in response to stimuli and perturbations, it is essential to replicate the complex molecular interactions within the local microenvironment of cellular niches. Here, we introduce ALTEN, a biomimetic tissue platform that allows in situ analysis of explanted tissue biopsies. This method preserves the original characteristics of the source tissue's cellular milieu - multiple and diverse cell types can be maintained over an extended period of time. As a result, ALTEN enables rapid and faithful characterisation of perturbations across specific cell types within a tissue. Importantly, using single-cell genomics, this approach provides integrated cellular responses at the resolution of individual cells. ALTEN is a powerful tool for the analysis of cellular responses upon exposure to cytotoxic agents and immunomodulators. Additionally, we show ALTEN's scalability using automated microfluidic devices for tissue encapsulation and subsequent transport to enable high-throughput screening for large-scale multi-centre studies.