Lab-on-a-Chip Technology Detects Hard-to-Diagnose Diseases

A new technology takes small plastic chips made of the same material as a compact disc or DVD, then transforms them into marvels of engineering and chemistry that quickly can detect hard-to-diagnose human diseases using saliva, urine or blood from a patient. The liquid biopsies can detect circulating tumor cells, cell-free DNA, viruses and vesicles that are released by biological cells associated with a particular disease.

The technology developed at the Center of BioModular Multi-Scale Systems for Precision Medicine, dubbed CBM2, a research center based at the University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS, USA), is pushing forward the boundaries of precision medicine, improving and extending the lives of patients, and creating commercialization partnerships as well as new training and education opportunities. CBM2 recently earned USD 6.6 million in continued funding over the next five years from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) as a National Biotechnology Resource (P41) Center.

Much of the work of CBM2 takes place in collaboration with partners. For instance, researchers at CBM2 are working to develop a handheld instrument to spot viruses giving rise to COVID-19 and to detect ovarian cancer early in women with a high family risk. This kind of cancer detection uses a few blood drops placed on a plastic chip created by the center to look for very small vesicles - the presence of which indicates early stage of cancer that will provide better survival compared to current diagnostic methods. The medical advances developed at CBM2 already are helping patients through commercial partnerships with private firms, and some of these products already are in use to improve outcomes of cancer patients.

Additionally, CBM2 is working on clinical trials to evaluate new therapeutics for pancreatic cancer, which accounts for 7% of cancer deaths across the U.S. The circulating tumor cells are secured from a blood sample using a plastic microchip. Other important research initiatives include a project on a test using small vesicles as markers for a point-of-care test for diagnosing ischemic stroke. The test can be completed in about 30 minutes to help decide how best to treat patients with stroke. In another effort, CBM2 is developing a new nanotechnology platform for sequencing RNA and DNA to detect changes to the RNA genome of viruses that give rise to variants, such as those associated with COVID-19.

“We develop little USD 2 widgets made from a plastic by injection molding that can take a liquid biopsy sample and search for different types of markers that can help a physician manage disease,” said CBM2 director Steven Soper. “To give you an example, this little chip is used to isolate tumor cells out of the blood of cancer patients. A physician will take a sample of blood from the patient, put it into the chip to enrich the tumor cells from the blood sample - there's very few of them, maybe about 10 or so - and then we open those cells to look at the genetic composition to help decide: does the patient have a disease, how to treat the disease, is the patient responding to therapy?”

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