CIRCULATING TUMOR CELL ISOLATION (CTCs)
BioFluidica specializes in circulating tumor cell isolation (CTCs). We invented LiquidScan® to isolate rare cells from body fluids and circulating tumor cells (CTCs), are very rare, having a concentration of 1-10 CTCs/ml in blood. CTCs are shed from cancerous tissues into the circulation system and other bodily fluids. CTCs in liquid biopsies have been a research subject as diagnostic markers for several cancers.
90% of cancer patients die from metastatic disease. LiquidScan offers researchers insight into disease onset and transitions.
RARE BIOMARKER ISOLATION
Specific Isolation of Circulating Cells
Any cell with specific cell surface markers can be isolated using LiquidScan.
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The channels of the LiquidScan microfluidic chips are surfaced with specific antibodies. LiquidScan technology relies on the affinity of the antibody under the flow conditions of loading sample on the chip, to "catch" the desired biomarker. The biomarker may be an antigen on a rare cell or exosome. Capture is critical, as is the ability to release the caught biomarker unencumbered. Released biomarkers are eluted from the chip in a volume ready for downstream molecular or immuno- analysis.
Below is described the basis of the proprietary catch-and-release chemistry. Efficiencies of catch-and-release for several cell culture types is shown to the left.
CELL-BASED LIQUID BIOPSY (CTC's)
Early cancer detection and personalized therapy have proven vital for patient diagnostics, prognostic, and long-term survival. Identifying and characterizing tumor cells provide critical information to diagnose, monitor, and potentially interfere with the metastatic process. A solid tumor biopsy, established as a standard clinical application, is invasive, expensive, time-consuming, and often perplexed by tumor heterogeneity. Liquid biopsies are relatively non-invasive and can be collected and tested repeatedly, with the testing including the latest DNA and RNA sequencing analyses. CTCs could even provide global information on metastatic risk, disease progression, and treatment effectiveness.
LIQUIDSCAN LIQUID BIOPSY
Despite their potential role in cancer patient healthcare, CTC-based liquid biopsy has not found its way into diagnostic practice. The challenges of CTCs are their rarity and potential sensitivity to perturbance of sample manipulations. To harness the power of CTC information, BioFluidica has designed and engineered a microfluidic-based platform integrated with immunochemistry and automation to isolate and enrich CTCs from whole blood samples. LiquidScan CTC enrichment requires no blood pre-treatment, and the design of the microfluidic chip ensures cell capture and viability for downstream analysis.
The microfluidic device is injection molded in plastic with microchannels in the shape of a sine curve for rare cell capture. The surface of the channels is coated with antibodies (or aptamers) targeting specific CTC biomarkers. The whole blood sample flows through the microfluidic chamber controlled by our proprietary robotic system. CTCs and other rare cells are affinity-captured on microfluidic chips with antibodies. The microfluidic chips are washed to eliminate cells other than the target rare cells (CTCs), which are then detached by enzymatic digestion to cleave specific linkers. The released cells are eluted and collected in the final step, ready for downstream analysis.