Microfluidics for liquid biopsy

Liquid biopsy is a minimally invasive and painless method that provides continuous, reliable and real-time information on the tumour progression,

overcoming the limitations of the clinical procedures.

Through the analysis of circulating biomarkers, being circulating tumour cells (CTCs), extracellular vesicles (EVs) and circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), liquid biopsy has the potential to access genetic and phenotypic information about the primary and secondary tumour, providing non-invasive and real-time

information about cancer progression.The analysis of circulating biomarkers permits to further understand tumour cell communication and to study some markers related to tumour microenvironment. Also, EVs and ctDNA can

provide reliable information about cancer specific mutations, while the presence of CTCs in cancer patients has been found to correlate with tumour burden. Due to these advantages, the liquid biopsy field has grown in the last decade

as a promising tool to investigate tumour heterogeneity, dynamics and progression.

Nonetheless, their technical isolation remains a challenge and requires a specific and independent blood sample for each entity to obtain reliable and efficient isolation.At INL, we have developed a series of microfluidic devices that are able to very efficiently isolate these circulating biomarkers, displaying high efficiencies of isolation, while ensuring miniaturization and automation through microfluidics. Furthermore, our microfluidic devices are designed in such a way that further

downstream analyses (i.e. fluorescence, molecular analyses, -omics) can be performed with minimal sample exchange.