Acoustic whole blood imaging flow cytometry for rare cell identification

Información del proyecto

BLOODFLOW

Identificador del acuerdo de subvención: 101187914

DOI

10.3030/101187914

Proyecto cerrado

Fecha de la firma de la CE 5 Septiembre 2024

Fecha de inicio 1 Octubre 2024

Fecha de finalización 31 Marzo 2026

Financiado con arreglo a

• European Research Council (ERC)

Coste total

Sin datos

Aportación de la UE

€ 150 000,00

Coordinado por

LUNDS UNIVERSITET
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BLOODFLOW (Acoustic whole blood imaging flow cytometry for rare cell identification)

Período documentado: 2024-10-01 hasta 2026-03-31

Resumen del contexto y de los objetivos generales del proyecto

This project addresses the need for new tools to detect and monitor rare cells in blood, such as circulating tumor cells. Breast and prostate cancer are the most common malignant cancers in women and men, respectively. Metastasis is the main threat in these cancers since it turns a curable local disease into a chronic lethal disease. With emerging new targeting therapies, there is an unmet clinical need for improved prognostication, treatment prediction and treatment monitoring, where circulating tumor cells enumeration have potential to become a valuable tool. But circulating tumor cells are very rare and the background of other blood cells is vast, which makes it extremely challenging to classify and count these cells. Researchers will develop acoustic whole-blood imaging flow cytometry in which circulating tumor cells are drawn out directly from blood using an acoustic field. This will enable unbiased imaging and enumeration of circulating tumor cells through a panel of fluorescent antibodies with minimal pre-treatment.

Trabajo realizado desde el comienzo del proyecto hasta el final del período abarcado por el informe y los principales resultados hasta la fecha

Researchers investigated some current uncertainties on the path to further development and future commercialisation of this technology. To demonstrate feasibility, the researchers developed fast multichannel fluorescence imaging capabilities compatible with an acoustofluidic chip for drawing out target cancer cells from undiluted blood. In the next step, they investigated new chip designs to increase the throughput of the blood cell separation to scale up the volumetric sample flow toward 10 mL within one hour while maintaining a low-enough flow velocity to enable good image quality. In the final steps, the researchers evaluated the chip design for identification of rare cells in undiluted healthy donor blood.

Avances que van más allá del estado de la técnica e impacto potencial esperado (incluida la repercusión socioeconómica y las implicaciones sociales más amplias del proyecto hasta la fecha)

The project managed to successfully demonstrate a proof of concept that fluorescence imaging of rare cells in whole blood is feasible using the proposed mechanism of expelling rare labelled cells by acoustic cell self-organisation. It was concluded, however, that the current design needs to be improved to enable robust performance.