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Updated: Mar 11, 2026
Clinical Microfluidic Chip Platform for the Isolation of Versatile Circulating Tumor Cells
Published on: October 13, 2023
The incorporation of microfluidics into circulating tumor cell isolation for clinical applications
Molly Kozminsky1, Yang Wang1, Sunitha Nagrath1
1Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2300 Hayward Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Biointerfaces Institute, University of Michigan, 2800 Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Translational Oncology Program, University of Michigan Health System, 1600 Huron Pkwy, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Abstract:
The second leading cause of death in the United States, cancer is at its most dangerous as it spreads to secondary locations. Cancer cells in the blood stream, or circulating tumor cells (CTCs), present an opportunity to study metastasis provided they may be extracted successfully from blood. Engineers have accelerated the development of technologies that achieve this goal based on exploiting differences between tumor cells and surrounding blood cells such as varying expression patterns of membrane proteins or physical characteristics. Collaboration with biologists and clinicians has allowed additional analysis and will lead to the use of these rare cells to their full potential in the fight against cancer.
