lifETIME CDT 2023 project: Isolation of bone sarcoma biomarkers using novel devices скачать в хорошем качестве

lifETIME CDT 2023 project: Isolation of bone sarcoma biomarkers using novel devices

Dr Eirini Theodosiou from Aston University talks about her lifETIME CDT 2023 #PhD project working with The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital. Project title: Isolation of bone sarcoma biomarkers using novel devices Although tissue biopsy is irreplaceable in identifying the nature of the tumours and is the current golden standard for cancer diagnosis and evaluation, it still suffers from several limitations. An innovative alternative to tissue-based methods, is liquid biopsy (LB), a minimally invasive approach, which relies on obtaining tumour information from body fluids, such as peripheral blood. Common biomarkers detected by LB are circulating tumour cells (CTCs), circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), micro RNA and extracellular vesicles (EVs). LBs are already widely recognised as a valuable diagnostic and monitoring tool for cancers, but for sarcomas the technology is lagging behind, mainly due to the rarity and large heterogeneity of these cancer types. The concentration of biomarkers in LBs of sarcomas is very low, and the most commonly targeted ones to date are ctDNAs, because their production is the most frequent event in the course of cancer progression. Unfortunately, however, ctDNAs cannot give insights into tumour heterogeneity. Although alternative biomarkers such as CTCs, can be used to describe many cellular components and provide information about heterogeneity, metastasis and response to treatments, they pose challenges mainly associated with CTC enrichment from a single blood sample, particularly due to their low concentration in patients with early-stage cancer. The aim of this project is to develop a novel, selective, single-use system for the isolation of bone sarcoma biomarkers, such as CTCs and EVs, from whole blood, and enable more efficient disease diagnosis and progression for patients with bone cancers. Application deadline: 31 January 2023 Apply here: https://lifetime-cdt.org/apply/