Jef Ekins

Fighting cancer: U of T researchers develop new tool to track circulating tumour cells

ullahnor — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 17:15:59 +0000

Fighting cancer: U of T researchers develop new tool to track circulating tumour cells

ullahnor Mon, 11/21/2016 - 12:15

Cutline

Circulating tumour cells are targeted with magnetic nanoparticles and then trapped using x-shaped microscale obstacles (photo illustration by Ella Marushchenko)

Jef Ekins

Author legacy

Jef Ekins

Topic

Global Lens

Cancer

Faculty of Pharmacy

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Ted Sargent

Shana Kelley

Institute for Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

Cancerous tumours are known to release cells into the bloodstream, and it is these circulating tumour cells (CTC) that are the sources of metastatic tumours – tumours that spread and form in distant locations in the body and can eventually kill patients.

A breakthrough by Professor Shana Kelley’s research group at the ��Ƶ published in Nature Nanotechnology provides a new tool to characterize CTCs that may help cancer biologists and clinicians understand how to use these cells to provide better treatment.

Monitoring circulating tumour cells has been a tremendous challenge as they are outnumbered in blood by healthy cells at a level of over 1 billion-1. Moreover, they can display varied and dynamic properties, and the collection of CTCs found in the bloodstream of a cancer patient may have differing metastatic potential. Consequently, efforts to integrate the analysis of these cells into mainstream clinical medicine have been limited because it has been difficult to pinpoint what types of cells and what phenotypic properties should be targeted.

But the potential of CTCs to allow the collection of a non-invasive “liquid biopsy” to monitor cancer progression is a tantalizing possibility that has continued to attract significant attention to this problem.

The Kelley research group found that by using magnetic nanoparticles, CTCs in blood samples could be targeted based on proteins displayed on the cell surface, and separated based on the levels of the protein present. Using a high–resolution microfluidic device, cells were then separated into 100 different capture zones to generate a profile that provides phenotypic information related to metastatic potential.

Using this approach and monitoring cells generated in animal models of cancer and in samples collected from prostate cancer patients, the properties of CTCs were shown to evolve and become more aggressive as tumours became more advanced.

“Through this approach, we aimed to provide a new way to profile CTCs beyond simply counting their numbers in clinical samples,” explained Mahla Poudineh, lead author of the paper who is a graduate student at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “Instead, we wanted to provide phentotypic information that might allow these cells to be classified as benign or more dangerous, which would then inform treatment options.”

Kelley is a professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Institute for Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering. The Kelley group along with collaborators at the Sargent Group, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering Professor Ted Sargent's research lab, hope to turn the approach they reported into a device that can be used by cancer researchers and eventually clinicians to allow CTC analysis to be monitored routinely and used to limit the progression of cancer.

“We were very fortunate to collaborate with a number of oncologists at the Sunnybrook Research Centre and Princess Margaret Hospital as we developed this technology so that we could test our approach with real patient specimens and better understand how to adapt it for use in the clinic,” Kelley said.

Producing low-cost drugs & vaccines on-site: new research from U of T, Harvard, MIT and U of O

ullahnor — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 17:08:44 +0000

Producing low-cost drugs & vaccines on-site: new research from U of T, Harvard, MIT and U of O

ullahnor Thu, 09/22/2016 - 13:08

Cutline

The portable biomolecular manufacturing system can produce a broad range of biomolecules, including vaccines, antimicrobial peptides and antibody conjugates, without power or refrigeration (Wyss Institute at Harvard University)

Jef Ekins

Author legacy

Jef Ekins

Topic

Breaking Research

Research & Innovation

Pharmacy

Keith Pardee

Drugs

Subheadline

Research team has developed a portable drug-manufacturing system that can be used anywhere in the world

As much as 80 per cent of the cost of bringing vaccines to the developing world comes from ensuring that the medications are properly refrigerated and transported.

A team of researchers from the ��Ƶ, MIT, Harvard, and the University of Ottawa have developed a new portable drug-manufacturing system that uses two sets of freeze-dried pellets, which when mixed with water, are able to produce medications, vaccines and diagnostic tools virtually anywhere in the world.

(courtesy of Wyss Institute at Harvard University)

The team published a proof-of-principle paper in Cell that details the development of a drug manufacturing system that's able to produce on-site, on-demand therapeutics and biomolecules.

“In essence, it’s like having a portable pharmacy that you can use to create the medications you need,” said Assistant Professor Keith Pardee of U of T’s Faculty of Pharmacy, co-lead author of the paper.

Most vaccines need to maintain a consistent temperature to prevent spoilage and maintain their efficacy, which necessitates a cold chain from production to application.

Despite these precautions and the attention paid to their transportation, the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund estimate that the amount of essential vaccines that end up wasted could be as high as 50 per cent.

The first of the freeze-dried pellets, developed by the researchers in 2014, is an innovative cell-free synthetic biology “machinery” that provides the manufacturing infrastructure to create an end product.

The second pellet consists of DNA instructions that tell the manufacturing piece what compound to produce. This pellet can be customized to generate a variety of products, including vaccines, anti-cancer antibodies, and diagnostic tools.

When the two freeze-dried pellets are combined with water, the production process begins.

Rapid, low-cost detection of Zika virus developed by experts at U of T, Harvard, MIT, Cornell and more

lanthierj — Thu, 05 May 2016 20:22:57 +0000

Rapid, low-cost detection of Zika virus developed by experts at U of T, Harvard, MIT, Cornell and more

lanthierj Thu, 05/05/2016 - 16:22

Cutline

Health officials fumigate against Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Jakarta (photo by Dasril Roszandi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Jef Ekins

Author legacy

Jef Ekins

Topic

Global Lens

Zika virus

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Public Health

International

Subheadline

Researchers hope easy-to-use, paper-based tool will “make a positive impact on public health across the globe”

It’s a cheap, fast and easy way to detect the Zika virus – using a freeze-dried piece of paper the size of a stamp.

And it was created by the ��Ƶ’s Keith Pardee and experts from seven other leading research institutions.

Details of the breakthrough were published in Cell on May 6.

“We hope that, through this work, we have created the template for a tool that can make a positive impact on public health across the globe,” said Pardee, one of the lead authors of the study and an assistant professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.

“The diagnostic platform developed by our team has provided a high-performing, low-cost tool that can work in remote locations. We have developed a workflow that combines molecular tools to provide diagnostics that can be read out on a piece of paper no larger than a postage stamp.”

The collaboration included Wyss Institute, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, Arizona State University, Cornell University, University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Broad Institute. The team used toehold sensors and isothermal RNA amplification to create the diagnostic sensors. The results: a cell-free, paper-based platform that can host synthetic gene networks for use outside the lab.

It’s a much-needed solution to the challenge of diagnosing the Zika virus, said Pardee (pictured below).

Right now, reliable diagnosis for patients suspected of the Zika virus involves nucleic acid-based testing. That kind of testing depends on laboratory access, highly specific and expensive equipment and trained technicians – and is unavailable in remote locations where surveillance and containment are critically needed.

This new technology, on the other hand, is easy to use, portable, requires little to no training – and costs less than a dollar per test, Pardee said.

Specifically tuned to the Zika virus, sensors are applied to small paper samples. A saliva, urine, or blood sample – equivalent to the amount required by blood glucose monitors that test blood sugar levels – is applied to the sensors, triggering a response that provides visually evident results in as little as an hour.

If the sample contains the RNA of the Zika virus, the test area turns purple.

Earlier this year, the World Health Organization declared the Zika virus a public health emergency of international concern. While the symptoms experienced by most infected patients of this mosquito-borne illness are mild – fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis – recent strains of the disease have demonstrated links to fetal microcephaly, birth defects, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and other neurological disorders.

With the onset of nicer weather, this disease is expected to expand to new territories and countries.

“Our synthetic biology pipeline for rapid sensor design and prototyping has tremendous potential for application for the Zika virus and other public health threats, enabling us to rapidly develop new diagnostics when and where they are needed most,” Pardee said.

While this study demonstrates proof-of-concept, the team is eager to secure the necessary partners and resources to proceed to the product development phase, Pardee said. That would be followed up by scaled-up manufacturing and distribution so that the diagnostic tool can be deployed for use in the field.

Ultimately, he added, the development of quick, easy-to-use, in-the-field tests for Zika and similar pathogens could help governments stay ahead of pathogen outbreaks, curbing the spread of disease and lessening the burden on already overtaxed healthcare systems.

“The utility of new low-cost diagnostics that can be deployed to combat public health threats like Zika is tremendous,” said U of T’s Shana Kelley, an expert in rapid diagnostics. “The work of Keith Pardee and his colleagues is a very important step forward as emerging threats appear.”

Federal government backs U of T spinoff company

sgupta — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:35:18 +0000

Federal government backs U of T spinoff company sgupta Mon, 02/25/2013 - 04:35

Cutline

Shana Kelley is developing an easy-to-use medical diagnostic device that will lower healthcare costs and reduce wait times (photo by John Loper)

Jef Ekins

Author legacy

Jef Ekins

Topic

2011 Steacie Prize awarded for nanotechnology-enabled disease diagnosis

sgupta — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:57:05 +0000

2011 Steacie Prize awarded for nanotechnology-enabled disease diagnosis sgupta Tue, 12/13/2011 - 03:57

Cutline

Pharmacy professor Shana Kelley's creative nanotechnology research has earned her the 2011 Steacie Prize. (Pharmacy photo)

Jef Ekins

Author legacy

Jef Ekins

Topic

Jef Ekins

Fighting cancer: U of T researchers develop new tool to track circulating tumour cells

Producing low-cost drugs & vaccines on-site: new research from U of T, Harvard, MIT and U of O

Read more about the team's earlier research on a low-cost Zika virus detection system

Rapid, low-cost detection of Zika virus developed by experts at U of T, Harvard, MIT, Cornell and more

Federal government backs U of T spinoff company

2011 Steacie Prize awarded for nanotechnology-enabled disease diagnosis