Abstract

Early Dissemination of CTCs: Detection, Molecular Characterization and Clinical Relevance

Sunitha Nagrath, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

My journey into the world of circulating biomarkers started under the mentorship of Mehmet Toner. I am fortunate to experience the power of microfluidics when it rendered the ability to discover more CTCs than conventional approaches. This was the foundation to further ask the challenging questions on how early these cells disseminate. With high throughput and sensitive microfluidic technologies for the isolation of CTCs, we were able to detect the CTCs not only in the setting of MRD, but also in earlier stages of cancer. We have developed microfluidic approaches for the detection and molecular characterization of these early disseminated cells. Finding CTCs in peripheral blood without any evidence of overt metastasis is further investigated for the clinical relevance.