Abstract

Going Beyond Averaging: Single Cell Analysis to Probe the Heterogeneity of Circulating Tumor Cells

Chwee Teck Lim, Provost’s Chair Professor, National University of Singapore

Tumor heterogeneity is a general trait of cancer which has proven to be a major hindrance in cancer classification, diagnosis and treatment. Cancer can be classified loosely into a few distinct sub-types, but recent technological advances have begun to reveal the true extent of its heterogeneity. Single cell analysis is emerging as an important approach to detect variations in morphology or genetic, proteomic and molecular expression.  Here, I will present some of our recent works on the use of novel microfluidic technologies developed in our lab to probe the heterogenity of cancer patient derived circulating tumor cells (CTCs). These include detecting the proteolytic capability of each CTC to obtain hint of their invasiveness as well as identify unique actionable key driver mutations with aim of improving anticancer therapy. It is hope that this single cell analysis approach will not only lead to better pesonalized treatment of cancer patients from the individually derived information of these tumor cells, but will also aid in the development of better drugs to combat this disease.