Michael Heller,
Professor, Dept Bioengineering,
University of California-San Diego
Michael J. Heller received his PhD in Biochemistry from Colorado State University in 1973. He was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University from 1973 to 1976. From 1976 to 1984 he was supervisor of the DNA Technology Group at Amoco Corporation (Standard Oil Indiana) During that time he carried out early bioengineering and recombinant DNA work on plants, algae and photosynthetic bacteria for energy and chemical production, and developed some of the first fluorescent resonant energy transfer (FRET) and chemiluminescent oligonucleotide probes for DNA hybridization analysis. He also oversaw Amoco’s sponsored energy and chemical research work at Cetus Corporation, which included the cloning of thermophilic enzymes. Dr. Heller was the Director of Molecular Biology at Molecular Biosystems, Inc., from 1984 to 1987. He was a co-founder of Integrated DNA Technologies, and served as President and Chief Operating Officer from 1987 to 1989. He was a co-found of Nanogen and served as the Chief Technical Officer from 1993 to 2001. Nanogen carried out the successful development and commercialization of electronic DNA microarray technology for clinical diagnostic genotyping applications. Dr. Heller is a Professor (Recall/Emeritus) in the Departments of Nanoengineering and Bioengineering at the University California San Diego. He is also now a Distinguished Scientist at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), Center for Cancer Early Detection and Research (CEDAR), in Portland, Oregon. He has also co-founded a company called Biological Dynamics which is developing new sample to answer cancer diagnostics technology, based on the novel dielectrophoretic (DEP) technology developed at his UCSD lab. Dr. Heller has extensive industrial experience in biotechnology, biomedical and molecular diagnostic devices and nanotechnology, with particular expertise in the areas of DNA probe diagnostics, electrokinetic lab-on-a-chip devices, DNA synthesis, FRET/fluorescent-based detection technologies and electric field assisted self-assembly of DNA nanostructures. Dr. Heller has over 100 publications and 56 issued US patents.
Point-of-Care System for Cancer Diagnostics and Therapy Monitoring
Wednesday, 4 October 2017 at 11:15
Add to Calendar ▼2017-10-04 11:15:002017-10-04 12:15:00Europe/LondonPoint-of-Care System for Cancer Diagnostics and Therapy MonitoringPOC Diagnostics, Global Health-Viral Diseases 2017 in Coronado Island, CaliforniaCoronado Island, CaliforniaSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com
Point of care (POC) devices for cancer and other molecular diagnostics still present considerable challenges. Cell free (cf) DNA and exosomal RNA and proteins are now regarded as important biomarkers for liquid biopsy cancer diagnostics, therapy monitoring and hold promise for early cancer detection. Until recently, the isolation of these biomarkers from patient samples required relatively complex, time consuming and expensive procedures which greatly limits their use for point of care (POC) cancer diagnostic applications. Now new AC electrokinetic (ACE) device (Biological Dynamics, La Jolla, CA) allow specific fluorescent dyes to be used first to simultaneously detect the different biomarker levels directly on the chip (in-situ). In a subsequent step, immunofluorescent analysis can be carried out to identify specific protein biomarkers on the exosomes. Finally, the cf-DNA and RNA (mRNAs and miRNAs release from the exosomes) can be eluted from the chip, and PCR, RT-PCR and sequencing analysis carried out to identify the cancer-related point mutations and other polymorphisms, as well as to further verify the tissue origin of the biomarkers. In the case of glioblastoma exosomes isolated from plasma, exosome-specific surface and interior proteins CD63 and TSG101 could be detected by immunofluorescence, and mutated EGFRvlll mRNA was detected by RT-PCR. Exosomal related protein biomarker Glypican-1 could be isolated from pancreatic cancer patient plasma samples by ACE and then detected on-chip by immunofluorescence, and Kras mutations detected in the eluted cf-DNA. Similar results are being obtained for prostate, breast, lung and brain cancer, as well as for TBI patient samples. Thus, ACE technology represents a powerful new minimally invasive technology for cancer diagnostics that is particularly well suited for the rapid isolation of cell free nucleic acid and exosome biomarkers. The technology is setting the stage for seamless sample to answer POC liquid biopsy diagnostics, cancer patient therapy monitoring and ultimately for early disease detection.
Add to Calendar ▼2017-10-02 00:00:002017-10-04 00:00:00Europe/LondonPOC Diagnostics, Global Health-Viral Diseases 2017POC Diagnostics, Global Health-Viral Diseases 2017 in Coronado Island, CaliforniaCoronado Island, CaliforniaSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com
Add to Calendar ▼2017-10-04 11:15:002017-10-04 12:15:00Europe/LondonPoint-of-Care System for Cancer Diagnostics and Therapy MonitoringPOC Diagnostics, Global Health-Viral Diseases 2017 in Coronado Island, CaliforniaCoronado Island, CaliforniaSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com
