New Tools for Liquid Biopsies: Microfluidic Platforms for the Efficient Isolation and Molecular Profiling of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs), Cell Free DNA (cfDNA) and Nanovesicles (Exosomes)
Steve Soper, Foundation Distinguished Professor; Director, Center of BioModular Multi-scale System for Precision Medicine, Adjunct Professor, Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology, The University of Kansas
Liquid biopsies are generating great interest within the biomedical
community due to the simplicity for securing important biomarkers to
manage complex diseases, such as many of the cancer-related diseases.
These circulating markers consist of CTCs, cfDNA and exosomes. We are
developing a suite of microfluidic devices that are can process whole
blood directly and engineered to efficiently search for a variety of
disease-associated liquid biopsy markers from divergent subpopulations
comprising the tumor microenvironment that can supply complementary
clinical information. Each microfluidic device can isolate the target
with recovery >90% and sufficient purity (>80%) to enable
downstream molecular analysis of the particular biomarker. The
microfluidic devices are made from thermoplastics via injection molding
to allow for mass-production of devices with tight compliancy to
accommodate clinical implementation. In this presentation, information
will be shared on the operational parameters of these devices for the
selection of liquid biopsy markers, and the downstream molecular
information that can be garnered from the isolated markers in diseases
such as colorectal, ovarian, breast, pancreatic and prostate cancers as
well as some of the liquid-based cancers (acute myeloid leukemia).
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