We’re Sadeka Nujhat, Hannah Leese and Sandhya Moise from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom. We research ways to detect cancer as early as possible to help save lives.

Submitted by UniversityofBath t3_zg01mt in IAmA

Hi Reddit, We are Sadeka, Hannah and Sandhya.

Our research is on developing technologies to detect cancer at its early stages. Early detection significantly increases survival rate in cancer patients. For example, for ovarian cancer patients, the 5-year survival rate is below 30% when diagnosed at stage 3 or higher (stages are levels of cancer advancements). If detected early at stage 1, this survival rate increases to >90%. However, early detection of ovarian cancer is challenging due to lack of unique symptoms, especially since we do not yet have a screening device.

Our research vision is to design a screening device for the early detection of ovarian cancer. We are developing microfluidics- based devices for screening. These tiny devices have a little inlet port into which we will be able to load patient blood samples. These samples will travel through the device and if there are any cancer cell secreted molecules or vesicles, these will be detected within the device. When captured, the device gives a signal and the patient will be advised to take more sensitive tests for further investigation.

Please ask us anything about using engineering approaches for detecting cancer.

Proof: Here's my proof!

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UniversityofBath OP t1_izebne2 wrote

Hi everyone. Sorry we're late, we were having some technical difficulties.

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IAmAModBot t1_izebt62 wrote

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CommunityPowerful54 t1_izedhd1 wrote

Hi team. Can you tell me a little more about what microfluidics is please?

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UniversityofBath OP t1_izefpte wrote

Replying to CommunityPowerful54 (#885,378)

Sure, thanks your question, microfluidics enables us to do lots of different things with tiny volumes/amounts of fluids which are applied to lots of different fields from bioengineering to catalysis. By having micro-sized channels, we can incorporate them into devices to enable us to work on much smaller scales. This helps us investigate fundamental questions such as how a fluid flows at the microscale (around the thickness of a single human hair) but also enables high-throughput screening and manufacturing through multiplexing (putting lots of devices together) microfluidic devices. Some vaccines are manufactured through high-throughput microfluidics. Microfluidics can give us the ability to have lab-on-chips, where we miniaturise all the components, we can carry out in a lab onto one chip.

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CommunityPowerful54 t1_izeg6gn wrote

Replying to UniversityofBath (#885,519)

>idic devices. Some vaccines are manufactured through high-throughput microfluidics. Microfluidics can give us the ability to have lab-on-chips, where we miniaturise all the components, we can carry out in a lab onto one chip.

Wow! So you wouldn't need a large amount of blood to detect cancer?

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daekle t1_izegkk6 wrote

Hi guys, Do you have a tabletop vortex mixer, and if so how often do you stick your finger into it? (in my opinion its the best part of being in science)

less importantly, are your microfluidic devices silicon based (using the same processing as silicon fabrication, such as photolithography), or can you make MF devices with plastics? as I assume the latter would be cheaper.

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somnamomma t1_izehcub wrote

What stage of research are you in regarding the device for detecting ovarian cancer? What part of your research excites you all the most?

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UniversityofBath OP t1_izei7u9 wrote

Replying to daekle (#885,564)

Thanks for the question 😊 the vortex mixers do have multiple uses. We are using a few approaches to develop the devices; photolithography is one of them as you say, but we are also using higher resolution 3D printers to produce cheaper at scale microfluidic devices.

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UniversityofBath OP t1_izejija wrote

Replying to somnamomma (#885,603)

>What part of your research excites you all the most?

Thank you for your question. We are currently optimising the design of the microfluidic device to efficiently isolate exosomes from an ovarian cancer cell line. So still at its very early stages. The key challenge is to capture cancer cell-derived exosomes (the biomarkers we are interested in) from the total population of exosomes (healthy cell-derived + cancer cell-derived). This is because the latter are a very small fraction of the total population and also because of their size (a few nanometres) it is harder to capture and detect them with existing technology. Overall, this is a really exciting project, and when realised, would pave way for a national level screening programme for early detection of ovarian cancer. The parts that we are most excited about are(i) identifying reliable biomarkers for early stages of ovarian cancer and (ii) being able to effectively capture and detect them within our device.

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Splicelice t1_izelmup wrote

Thanks for doing this! What is the newest/best way to screen for colon cancer?

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cwalker2300 t1_izeofbb wrote

Hi all, thanks for doing this. Liquid biopsies seem to be very effective at determining probability of recurrence when samples can be referenced to observed tumor mutations. How does this work with no patient matched tumor genome?

Also, the prevalence of ovarian cancer is relatively low among the general population, which I imagine makes the test more difficult. A test of high sensitivity (>95%) would still lead to many false positives. Is this a concern?

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merryman1 t1_izeprdr wrote

Where do you see your work in the pipeline from lab to clinic, will this kind of technology be diagnosing patients in the immediate future or will this be a longer term ambition?

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Isquion t1_izeq98g wrote

Hello there!

Which markers are you using in this early detection?

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Deanosaur21 t1_izetatl wrote

Hi! Could this type of screening be adapted to detect other types of cancers aswell?

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spannerhorse t1_izewihu wrote

Are conspiracy theories about cancer research have any ounce of truth? Like, are pharmaceutical companies trying to suppress new breakthroughs when they themselves are most likely bankrolling you?

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rcc737 t1_izf19y9 wrote

Do you plan to branch out to other types of cancer? Pancreatic and kidney cancers are very difficult to detect and both. Lung, colorectal and pancreatic cancers were the biggest killers in 2020 in the USA.

How likely is it your research will be used elsewhere?

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Herp2theDerp t1_izf39sp wrote

So does this microfluidics approach cancer as more of a microscopic phenomena that you then try to macroscopically model on the body?

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garylosh t1_izfatvz wrote

Are you focusing on one subtype of ovarian cancer?

I had stage I testicular cancer this year. While detection and survival for primary testicular tumors is excellent, I’ve connected with people who had primary extragonadal germ cell tumors, which are very often detected at a late stage. I know that germ cell tumors represent a small minority of ovarian cancer cases, but I am curious whether your research could be applied to germ cell tumors.

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Ashahoy t1_izfkj38 wrote

How long are the sensors in the body? How are they expelled? What kind of antenna is used and how often is it transmitting?

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FlexoPXP t1_izfprlv wrote

Advanced diagnostic techniques are useless. If they are not affordable and able to be used widely. Can you tell us about any measures you take to make your tests affordable or are you purely concerned with just the raw science and leaving the economics to others?

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dumb_guy_421 t1_izfqqzm wrote

Hey all, hope you are doing well. How exactly does the device identify that the cells are cancerous? I thought one of the main issues with cancer detection is that it is too difficult to distinguish from healthy cells in the quantities you find them in blood.

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MrMcPickle3000 t1_izfwvnk wrote

What kind of brain cancer do you think Donald Trump has? He seems mentally impaired in many ways. Thanks!

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CarryTheFlame t1_izg8ep5 wrote

Could the same method be used to detect Prostate Cancer in men?

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Gow87 t1_izgmxbo wrote

Maybe slightly off topic but did Theranos and their use/preaching of microfluidics (and subsequent public downfall) have any impact on funding or perception of the work you are doing?

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Neverfloppy t1_izi6jim wrote

Have you used the parsortix system (recently FDA approved) and are you able to get better results?

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