Grant: CIHR New Investigator

This proposal describes a research program in medical technology development comprising of three projects. The first project aims to develop technologies for the isolation of circulating tumor cells. Approximately 90% of all cancer related deaths is a result of metastasis, or the spread of cancer from one part of the body to another. Circulating tumor cells are the seeds of this process that first detaches from a primary tumor, circulate in the bloodstream, and reattach to a different tissue. The capture, identification, and analysis of these cells have the potential to enable major advances in the research and treatment of many types of cancers. Specifically, the presence of circulating tumor cells can provide an early indication of disease, while the number and status of these cells can be used to select personalized drugs and dosage levels to most appropriately treat each patient. The second project aims to develop technologies for evaluating the quality of stored blood used for blood transfusions. This capability can potentially enable the Canadian Blood Services to optimize storage practices to maximize storage time and ensure maximum health benefit to each transfusion recipient. The third project aims to develop technologies to study malaria infection. Malaria is caused by a microscopic parasite transmitted by mosquitoes to humans. Globally, there are between 200 and 500 million cases of malaria per year, resulting in approximately 1 million deaths, the majority of which are small children. Our technology aims to be a simple tool for physicians and researchers to study growth of the parasite and its response to drugs.