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Research Goals
Research Goals
The Nagrath Laboratory's research goal is to bring the next generation of engineering tools to patient care, especially in cancer. Our major research objective is to develop advanced MEMS tools to understand cell trafficking in cancer through isolation, characterization, and study of diagnostic, prognostic, and monitoring biomarkers in the peripheral blood of cancer patients. We focus our efforts on designing and developing smart chips using microfluidics and nanotechnology to make impact in medicine and life sciences. Our goal is to create cutting edge engineering solutions for clinical medicine with novel translational biomedical research tools. We strongly believe in building a team where engineers, biologists and clinicians will come together to solve the complex problems with better approaches.
Microfluidic devices
Microfluidic devices
Researchers at the Nagrath Laboratory are developing microfluidic devices for isolating and studying blood-based biomarkers including circulating tumor cells and exosomes.
The devices we develop are based on immunoaffinity measures (targeting known antigen expression) or physical attributes (such as size) of the target biomarker.
Circulating tumor cells
Circulating tumor cells
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are rare cells shed from the primary tumor that can be found in the blood stream. To isolate them is an elusive goal: they are present at a frequency of as low as only one CTC in one billion blood cells. However, it is these target cells that may provide clinically useful answers to questions such as "what cells are capable of metastasis?" and "how do we stop them?"
Exosomes
Exosomes
Exosomes are a population of extracellular vessicles that are secreted from cells. These vesicles are 30 - 150 nm in diameter and contain bioactive material from their parent cell that can be used as biomarkers for disease detection and monitoring. Current projects in lab are investigating their diagnostic and prognostic value in the context of glioblastoma and delivering therapeutics across the blood brain barrier.
Future Directions
Future Directions
Our research interests are unified by the drive to develop creative new devices that are ultimately able to traverse the gap from benchside to bedside. We are currently exploring novel nanomaterials, processing clinical samples, and conducting downstream analysis of captured cells in order to design and optimize state-of-the-art technology for early disease detection and the study of fundamental cancer biology.
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