I-Corps: Evolutionary Biology Platform for the Early Detection of Solid Tumor Cancers

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种独立的、非侵入性的泛癌症诊断测试，以消除每年超过240，000名晚期癌症患者的损失。早期检测多种癌症和单一测试可能会捕获与现有诊断标准相关的115亿美元成本负担的一部分，这些标准导致不必要的后续测试，过度治疗，后期治疗引起的并发症以及住院时间延长的住院费用。通过使医生能够早期检测癌症和进一步的亚型疾病，该平台将允许超越检测的能力，包括治疗匹配，治疗监测和生物标志物发现-有助于实现个性化医疗的更广泛的医疗保健目标。这个I-Corps项目是基于一个诊断平台的开发，该平台提供了一个动态的分子图谱，可以绘制出癌症在体内的演变。 该技术依赖于癌细胞和健康细胞产生的生物标志物的新分类。该技术分析了细胞在突变和癌变时释放到血液中的蛋白质和代谢物的共同衍生特征，并将这些生物标志物进一步分类为易于解释的进化模型。该技术通过识别和理解导致癌症发展的各种因果因素，从根本上推进了对癌症“开关”的理解。 初步数据表明，高水平的准确性（95%的灵敏度和特异性），由同行评审的出版物支持。 该技术平台可以提供患者疾病状态的全面描述。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a standalone, non-invasive pan-cancer diagnostic test to eliminate the annual loss of more than 240,000 patients to late-stage cancer. The detection of multiple cancers early and with a single test may capture part of the $11.5 billion cost burden associated with existing diagnostic standards that result in unnecessary follow-up tests, overtreatment, complications due to late-stage treatment, and hospitalization costs from extended in-patient stays. By enabling physicians to detect cancer early and further subtype disease, the platform will allow for capabilities beyond detection, including treatment matching, therapy monitoring, and biomarker discovery—contributing to the broader health care goal of personalizing medicine. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a diagnostic platform that provides a dynamic molecular profile that maps the evolution of cancer in the body. The technology relies on a novel classification of biomarkers produced by both cancer cells and healthy cells. This technique analyzes the shared derived traits of the proteins and metabolites that cells release into the blood as they mutate and become cancerous, and further classifies these biomarkers in an easily interpretable evolutionary model. The technology fundamentally advances the understanding of the cancer “switch” by both recognizing and making sense of the variety of causal factors that lead to cancer development. Preliminary data suggests a high level of accuracy (95% sensitivity and specificity), supported by peer-reviewed publications. This technology platform may provide a comprehensive portrait of a patient’s disease state.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.