Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 15, 2026
Microfluidics-based High-throughput Circulating Tumor Cell Sorting and Single-cell Sequencing Technology
Published on: November 14, 2025
High purity microfluidic sorting and analysis of circulating tumor cells: towards routine mutation detection
Julien Autebert1, Benoit Coudert, Jérôme Champ
1Institut Curie, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, PSL Research University, Unité Mixte de Recherche 168, 75005 Paris, France. jean-louis.viovy@curie.fr.
A novel Ephesia system efficiently captures circulating tumor cells (CTCs) using magnetic nanoparticles and microfluidics. This advanced technology enables high-purity CTC isolation for genetic analysis, outperforming existing methods in patient sample validation.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology
- Medical Diagnostics
- Oncology
Background:
- Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are crucial biomarkers for cancer detection and monitoring.
- Existing CTC capture technologies face challenges in efficiency, specificity, and downstream genetic analysis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present and characterize a new generation Ephesia cell capture technology optimized for CTC isolation and genetic analysis.
- To compare the performance of the Ephesia system against the established CellSearch system.
Main Methods:
- Utilized magnetic particles with EpCAM antibodies in a microfluidic flow cell with high-aspect-ratio columns for CTC capture.
- Developed a two-step blood processing method for rapid analysis of 10 ml blood samples.
- Employed automated immunostaining and semi-automated cell counting for validation on patient samples.
- Performed quantitative PCR (qPCR) for genetic mutation detection (PIK3CA) in captured CTCs.
Main Results:
- Achieved >90% capture efficiency for epithelial cells at low concentrations and high specificity (<0.26% non-epithelial cells).
- Demonstrated a 70% capture rate for 25 spiked cells in 10 ml blood with minimal contamination (<100 hematopoietic cells).
- Captured CTCs in 75% of metastatic prostate and 80% of metastatic breast cancer patients, outperforming CellSearch in 10/13 samples.
- Successfully detected PIK3CA gene mutations in as few as 20 captured cells.
Conclusions:
- The optimized Ephesia system offers a highly efficient and specific method for CTC capture and genetic analysis.
- This technology shows significant potential for improving cancer diagnostics and patient monitoring.
- The system demonstrates comparable or superior performance to the CellSearch system, particularly in genetic analysis capabilities.
