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But using a different synthetic polymer, one that is commonly used in biomaterial engineering, for the side chains can produce a gel that can mimic living tissue.

The researchers have demonstrated the potential of biomaterial vaccine formulations to successfully fight the growth of tumors in an extensive body of work performed in preclinical animal models and a first clinical trial with cancer patients.

Interestingly, Mooney's group had shown in an earlier biomaterial study that changing mechanical features of immune cells' environments, especially their viscoelasticity, affects immune cell development and functions.

Key to their approach was a biomaterial vaccine formulation that enabled greater and more persistent LN expansion than standard control vaccines.

"By enhancing the initial and sustained expansion of LNs with biomaterial scaffolds, non-invasively monitoring them individually over long time periods, and probing deeply into their tissue architecture and immune cell populations, we tightly correlate a persistent LN expansion with more robust immune and vaccination responses," said Wyss Institute Founding Core Faculty member David Mooney, Ph.D., who led the study.