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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 27, 2026

Highly Sensitive Assay for Measurement of Arenavirus-cell Attachment

Highly Sensitive Assay for Measurement of Arenavirus-cell Attachment

Published on: March 2, 2016

Engineered immune cells as highly sensitive cancer diagnostics.

Amin Aalipour^1,2, Hui-Yen Chuang^2,3, Surya Murty^1,2

¹Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.

Nature Biotechnology

|March 20, 2019

Summary

Researchers developed a novel macrophage-based sensor for highly sensitive early cancer detection. This innovative approach uses engineered macrophages to identify tumors as small as 25 mm³ via blood analysis, outperforming current biomarkers.

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Area of Science:

Biomedical Engineering
Oncology
Immunology

Background:

Endogenous biomarkers are crucial for early disease detection but often lack sufficient sensitivity and specificity.
Current diagnostic methods face challenges in early and accurate cancer identification.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a highly sensitive, cell-based in vivo sensor for early cancer detection.
To engineer macrophages as reporters for tumor-associated metabolic profiles.

Main Methods:

Macrophages were engineered to express luciferase under the control of the arginase-1 promoter.
Engineered macrophages were adoptively transferred into mouse models of colorectal and breast cancer.
Bioluminescence imaging and blood luciferase measurements were used for detection.

Main Results:

The engineered macrophage sensor detected small tumors (25-50 mm³) in vivo.
The sensor demonstrated high sensitivity, surpassing existing protein and nucleic acid biomarkers.
The system effectively monitored inflammatory responses in non-cancerous models.

Conclusions:

Engineered macrophages serve as a sensitive and specific in vivo sensor for early cancer detection.
This cell-based sensor technology holds promise for improved disease monitoring beyond cancer.