The growth rate of both bacterial and human cells has a central role in the clinical management of infectious diseases and malignancies. Virulent and aggressive bacterial strains have higher growth rates, which will decrease in response to successful treatment. Proliferation rates are also instrumental in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of various cancer types, as the proliferation rate of human cells is one of the hallmarks of malignancy, evident by the widespread use of various proliferation indices such as mitotic figure counting, PCNA and Ki-67 antibodies. An integral part of cell growth is DNA replication; in mid-replication, each replicating cell will have a second, partial, currently synthesized genome. This creates variations in DNA copy-number along the genome across a population of cells from which growth-rate is inferable.
Based on our novel ERC-funded method, which accurately measures bacterial growth rates from metagenomic samples, in this project we developed approaches that will allow medical practitioners to use existing equipment to cheaply and rapidly obtain an entirely new facet of information about pathogens in infectious diseases, as well as accurate estimation of tumor proliferation rates. Specifically, we developed an experimental method that can be used with existing standard laboratory equipment, that allow physicians to identify pathogens and obtain an estimate of their virulence or response to antibiotic treatment within a single simple experiment. We have also made significant advances in devising a similar approach for obtaining a diagnostic and prognostic index of tumor proliferation. Notably, our approach this product is superior to the current state-of-the-art as sample preparation is simple and requires no immunological staining or examination by an experienced pathologist, increasing validity and reproducibility.
If reaching the clinic, our approach should thus have profound impact and societal benefits as it would lead to more complete and more rapid identification of pathogen and tumor growth rates, increasing diagnoses and leading to more informed medical treatment decisions.
