Pre-therapeutic diagnostic testing of heterogeneous tumors helps avoid ineffective treatments, optimizes therapy, and improves quality of life. Within targeted therapy, immunotherapy has led to significant improvements in treatment outcomes and is swiftly being integrated with diagnostic workflows. However, in this context, routine pre-therapeutic screening currently does not exist for immunotherapy, largely because of tumor heterogeneity. Spatially resolved molecular profiling of tumors prior to treatment would allow prediction of patient response to immunotherapeutics, thus establishing more accurate treatment.
In this project, we have made the first steps in developing methods to perform local biochemical reactions at micrometer length-scales using nanoliter volumes of biochemicals. This aids in heterogeneity analysis. These methods are implemented using a scanning probe technology – microfluidic probe (MFP) – with devices, platforms & assays adapted for application on substrates. Within the context of this project, we advanced work on local DNA analysis and micro-fluorescence in situ hybridization, and micro-immunohistochemical analysis on cells including a new metric for quantitative protein expression analysis on tissue sections. Early tests were performed on breast and pancreatic tumor tissues. We also worked towards adapting these microscale molecular methods to now be compatible with state-of-the-art workflows.
We envision translating the MFP technology from lab to the clinic with the ultimate aim of offering a new line of tumor analysis services for personalized immunotherapy.
