3D-Printed Cell Traps Help Researchers Find Cancer Cells

Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) are working on a method that could enable rapid and low-cost separation of tumor cells circulating in the bloodstream. The researchers developed the new approach using 3D-printed cell traps, Georgia Tech's research news team reported. According to the researchers, trapping the white blood cells – which are about the size of cancer cells – and filtering out smaller red blood cells leaves behind the tumor cells, which could then be used to diagnose the disease, potentially provide early warning of recurrence and enable research into the cancer metastasis process. “Isolating circulating tumor cells from whole blood samples has been a challenge because we are looking for a handful of cancer cells mixed with billions of normal red and white blood cells,” said A. Fatih Sarioglu, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). “With this device, we can process a clinically-relevant volume of blood by capturing nearly all of the white blood cells and then filtering out the red blood cells by size. That leaves us with undamaged tumor cells that can be sequenced to determine the specific cancer type and the unique characteristics of each patient’s tumor.” The research was reported in September in the journal Lab on a Chip, and...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: 3-D Printing Source Type: news