News & Analysis
Comment
peter.clarke
iniewski
Warren, agreed, this all sounds cool, detection of cancer, lab on chip, etc. But ...
IMEC launches cancer lab-on-chip project
Peter Clarke
9/2/2010 10:38 AM EDT
LONDON – European research institute IMEC (Leuven, Belgium) and its project partners have launched a European collaborative research project to build a lab-on-a-chip for the detection of tumor cells in blood.
The Miracle project (Magnetic Isolation and moleculaR Analysis of single CircuLating and disseminated tumor cElls on chip) is due to run for four years from Sept. 1 2010 and the partners are set to receive €7 million (about $9 million) towards a total budget of €9.18 million (about $11.8 million)
The creation of a microfluidic device able to isolate and detect circulating and disseminated tumor cells (CTCs and DTCs) in blood is a step towards faster and more cost-efficient diagnosis of cancer. The Miracle project aims at developing a fully automated and integrated microsystem to provide the genotype of CTCs and DTCs starting from clinical samples.
In a preceding joint project called Mascot, individual microfluidic modules for cell isolation, cell counting, DNA amplification and detection were developed. Based on this expertise and strengthened by additional partners, the development of a fully automated, lab-on-chip platform to isolate, count and genotype CTCs is envisaged within the framework of the Miracle project.
For genotyping, genetic material, such a mitochondrial RNA, will be extracted from the cells and multiple cancer related markers will be amplified based on multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification followed by their detection using an array of electrochemical sensors.
IMEC is project coordinator and is collaborating with the Universitat Rovira I Virgili (Spain), the Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz, AdnaGen, ThinXXs and Consultech (Germany), MRC Holland (The Netherlands), the Oslo University Hospital (Norway), the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Multi-D and Fujirebio Diagnostics (Sweden), the European Cancer Organisation and ICsense (Belgium) and Labman (UK).
Related links and articles:
Electronic nose detects cancer in patient's breath
|
|
|
|
|
Sanjib.Acharya
9/2/2010 1:21 PM EDT
As the rising threat from cancer is increasing health concerns day by day in modern societies, more and more breakthroughs in the field of cancer research are the essential need of the hour. It is great to see that the advancement in technology has made it possible to take another step towards faster and more cost-effective diagnosis of cancer. I went to the "Miracle home page" listed in the related links below this article and could get a fair idea about what they intend to achieve through this "lab-on-chip" project. Kudos to the "Miracle" team!
Sign in to Reply
nicolas.mokhoff
9/2/2010 1:54 PM EDT
It is interesting to note that the announcement of the European project was made at the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, giving gravitas to cancer research being a global search endeavor. EE Times is preparing a special digital issue on Medical Electronics in the fall. They would be interested in hearing about global progress in other lab-on-a-chip projects.
Sign in to Reply
selinz
9/2/2010 4:50 PM EDT
Well, if you want work on something that you're sure to get funding for, this is it! Who's going to bring this one into contention? Let's hope that it's success is quick and it's utility is pervasive.
Sign in to Reply
Warren
9/2/2010 5:21 PM EDT
This is exciting stuff and a wonderful engineering arena, but I am feeling quite unsure as to what the "real" news is within this article. We've seen a lot from many folks regarding various "lab-on-a-chip" activities, and we'll see tons more in the coming many months I expect... so maybe that's not such a big deal. The big news might be what's cost-effectively analyzed if the program is successful. Maybe. The "news" could be the growing list of "partners" in the program in going from MASCOT to Miracle (increase of 2x)... or it could be the shrinking budget; what looks to be half as much investment spread across twice as many partners. Anybody want to clarify for me?
Sign in to Reply
iniewski
9/3/2010 11:19 AM EDT
Warren, agreed, this all sounds cool, detection of cancer, lab on chip, etc. But we have been hearing about these projects for years. Agilent had even a commercial product which I don't think was selling well, perhaps it was too early. I would be really interested in hearing about some substantial technical progress in this field or substantial funding initiative...Kris
Sign in to Reply
peter.clarke
9/3/2010 11:30 AM EDT
@Warren
Could you get in touch with me peter.clarke@ubm.com cos Mike Cowan wants to get in touch with you....complicated I know.
Peter
Sign in to Reply
ChakC
9/3/2010 7:30 AM EDT
@Warren, it's really exciting to see this engineering work! However, I am more concerned about how many people are willing to inject these microfluidic devices into their bodies. On the other hand, a lot of work have been done on different areas including cell counting, DNA detection inside the body! There are social implications to this bio-engineering work!
Sign in to Reply