\textit{E. coli} as a biological model for cancer cells

Uninhibited growth and invasion of healthy tissue characterize cancer. We co-cultured two strains of \textit{E. coli} bacteria in a microfabricated environment to model cancer. During starvation, growth-advantage-in-stationary-phase, or GASP, cells grew to a higher population than wild-type cells. GASP cells also displaced wild-type cells from nutrient-rich chambers. When we repeated the experiment with medium depleted by wild-type cells, the peak GASP population density increased 54\%, and the ``invasion,'' or displacement of wild-type cells from nutrient-rich chambers, occurred 5 hours earlier. We mathematically modeled both this increase in GASP population and this acceleration of spatial invasion by assuming that GASP cells consume detritus secreted by wild-type cells. Our experimental and model results corroborate recent caution against using tumor starvation as a cancer therapy.