Description:
Technology Summary
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are cells that have entered the peripheral blood of cancer patients after having left primary or metastatic tumors. Identifying the presence and assessing the characteristics of these CTCs through liquid biopsies has shown great promise for improving cancer patient care by enabling early cancer detection.
Current methods of selective CTC identification require coupled labeling with fluorescent markers and antibodies. Although successful, this method is destructive to the sample and requires cumbersome extra steps, preventing further testing and limiting throughput.
This technology is a screening method, device, and platform for CTC’s in blood that utilizes digital holography microscopy, eliminating the need for labeling and allowing for high-throughput. This platform fingerprints every cell in a population at 10,000 cells/second and can identify as few as 100 tumor cells/ml. Further improvements to increase sensitivity and accuracy are in progress.
Reference Number
D-1376: Label–free, high-throughput holographic screening and enumeration of tumor cells in blood
Market Applications
-Cancer early detection and diagnosis
-Biotechnology
-Pharmaceutical research
-cell sorting
Features, Benefits & Advantages
-Label-free detection
-non-destructive
-High throughput assay
-Potential to integrate with cell sorting and enrichment techniques
Intellectual Property
A provisional patent was filed 6/23/2017, serial no. 62524006
A PCT was filed 6/22/2018, serial no. PCT/US18/38939
Development Stage
Testing done on blood samples with initial prototype to demonstrate accuracy, speed, and efficacy.
Researchers
Dr. Siva Vanapalli, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas Tech University
Dr. Dhananjay Kumar Singh, Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Texas Tech University
Keywords
In-line digital holographic microscopy, label-free marking, tumor cell identification, non-destructive testing, cancer diagnostics, high-throughput assay