Microfluidics for the Interrogation of Circulating Biomarkers in Glioblastoma Patients
Shannon Stott, Assistant Professor, Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School
Clinically, there is a dire need to diagnose and monitor brain tumor
recurrence and to detect mutations in real time to guide patient
treatment. A blood-based ‘liquid biopsy’ that captures and analyzes both
circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and extracellular vesicles (EVs) would
be an ideal approach to better predict tumor response in glioblastoma
patients without the need for highly invasive brain surgery. Through
these blood-on-a-chip assays, we aim to gain a better understanding of
when these important tumor derived CTCs and extracellular vesicles are
released and how we can exploit their molecular content to better guide
patient treatment. Working in partnership with Dr. Brian Nahed at MGH,
we have used our microfluidic technologies to isolate CTCs and EVs from
the blood of patients with advanced glioblastoma multiforme. In this
talk, data will be presented on our technological approach as well as
our effort to interrogate their molecular content using next generation
RNA sequencing. Through the microfluidic isolation of blood based
biomarkers from patients, our goal is to obtain complementary data to
the current standard of care to help better guide treatment.
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