Microfluidic Filtration of Circulating Tumor Cells

Anna Pyayt, Assistant Professor
Department of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620-5350
pyayt@usf.edu; 813-974-6250

Overview of the Pyayt research group: 
The IBIS - Innovative Biomedical Instruments and Systems lab performs research on nano-instruments and bio-sensors applied to advanced diagnostics, imaging and treatment. The fundamental core of the underlying approach is the interface between photonics, nanotechnology, bioimaging, and microfluidics. The examples of the current projects are nanowire-based tools for imaging on single-cell level, coupling of light to fluorescent nanoparticles and light delivery using ultra-thin waveguiding structures. Another important research direction is photonic chips for detailed testing of such complex fluids as human plasma and whole blood for diagnosis and treatment of life threatening diseases. Figure 1 shows microfluidic filtering membrane fabricated by one of Dr. Pyayt’s PhD students. The membrane is just 1 micrometer thick, but at the same time very robust, and can be used for filtering particles from a solution.

Teacher Project: 
The goal of this project for the teacher is to work on a miniature microfluidic filtering system capable of capturing circulating tumor cells (CTC). We plan to use passive flow-through microfluidics that we are currently developing in our lab. It doesn't require pumps, very miniature, in future can be implanted and operated by blood flow inside of the blood vessel. The filtered CTC will be captured in a small chamber on top of an optical fiber and then optically analyzed.
Since CTC are present only 1-10 cells/ml, continuous filtering them from the whole blood volume would be very beneficial. These cells have detached from the primary and metastatic tumors and are shed into the bloodstream. They are responsible for spawning metastatic disease, but, at the same time, they can be used as important biomarkers in several types of cancer including breast cancer.

The teacher will be working on a miniature device allowing detecting even low concentration of the CTC, since the whole volume of blood will be used for filtering out CTC. This would allow earlier detection of cancer. Additionally, monitoring of changes in # of CTC would allow tracking of the therapy efficiency. Finally, continuous filtering out CTC can prevent or slow down metastasis.

The teacher will be able to start working on the project immediately, since all the needed infrastructure is already in place. Before the beginning of the project we will provide several papers explaining foundations needed for doing research. One MS student and one REU student will be assisting the teacher with different aspects of the project. Depending upon progress, the results might be used for either conference presentation or a journal publication with a co-authorship of the teacher.