Ian Wark Research Institute
ARC Special Research Centre
ARC Special Research Centre
Research Area: Microfluidic, nanomedicine, nanobiomaterials,
cancer, molecular biology
Supervisor: A/Prof
Benjamin Thierry
Collaborators: Sansom Institute (UniSA) and Institute of
Medical and Veterinary Science
Description: While the presence of CTCs in blood has been known
since the mid-1800s, their capture for diagnostic and mechanistic
purposes has remained an elusive goal, mostly due to the absence of
reliable technologies able to isolate these cells which are present at
ratios as low as 1 to 10 per a billion blood cells. The capture and
molecular analyses of these cancer cells offers unique possibilities to
achieve a better and personalized understanding of the disease
pathophysiology and to monitor its evolution. The recent demonstration
of the outstanding capabilities of microfabricated devices to isolate
CTCs has generated the hope of a real paradigm shift in cancer
diagnostic, prognostic and mechanistic studies.
Project Aim: Taking advantage of the unique new facilities at The
Wark, as the SA node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility, the
aim of this project is to develop a microfluidic platform technology for
the immuno-specific capture and molecular profiling of circulating
cancer cells (CTCs) from blood. Through the integration on these CTC
capture devices of advanced nanotechnology-enabled detection methods and
molecular profiling capabilities such as FISH and RT-PCR, this project
also aim to deliver practical and noninvasive strategies to determine
the molecular signature of metastatic malignancies.
Further Information
Pantel K, Brakenhoff RH, Brandt B: Detection, clinical relevance and
specific biological properties of disseminating tumour cells. Nat Rev
Cancer 8:329-40, 2008. Nagrath S, Sequist LV, Maheswaran S, et al:
Isolation of rare circulating tumour cells in cancer patients by
microchip technology. Nature 450:1235-9, 2007
