Improved experimental and computational approaches for the design of CTC-capturing medical devices

英国癌症研究中心的统计数据表明，个人一生中患癌症的可能性超过40%。大多数形式的癌症的特征在于实体瘤中细胞的过度增殖，其通常将癌细胞脱落到患者的血流中到其他次要位置（转移级联）。这些细胞被称为循环肿瘤细胞（CTC），数量稀少（109个细胞中只有一个细胞），难以分离。同时，CTC可以成为诊断信息的极好来源，因为它们包含有关疾病类型的信息，有助于决定靶向药物治疗和治疗监测。此外，它们的存在和数量指示患者预后。开发无化学品、快速和有效的方法来分离活的CTC，而不丧失其生物学特性，对于下一代癌症的即时分析至关重要。在基于物理学的分离装置中，除了细胞的几何特征（即细胞尺寸）和流体装置（即收缩部的尺寸）之外，细胞的机械性质如刚度、可压缩程度、粘弹性和粘性也可影响分离效率。由于知识的差距和对患者护理的影响，这个博士研究项目的主要目的是研究细胞生物力学特性在细胞与流体流动和复杂几何形状相互作用中的作用。这将通过使用计算机模拟和实验技术验证来表征隔离医疗设备中的流动来实现。拟议的科学分析将通过优化设计和操作条件来提高当前的医疗技术。总之，这个博士研究项目的核心重点，其中福尔斯属于医疗技术领域，是开发改进的实验和计算方法的CTC捕获医疗设备的设计。

Cancer Research UK's statistics suggest that individuals have over 40% likelihood of suffering from cancer during their life. Most forms of cancer are characterised by excessive proliferation of cells in solid tumours, which often shed cancer cells into the patient's bloodstream to other secondary locations (metastasis cascade). These cells, known as Circulating Tumour Cells (CTCs), are scarce (a single cell in 109 cells) and difficult to isolate. Meanwhile, CTCs can be an excellent source of diagnostic information because they contain information on the type of disease, which helps decide on targeted drug therapies and treatment monitoring. Additionally, their presence and quantity are indicative of patient prognosis. The development of chemical-free, fast, and efficient methodologies for isolating viable CTCs, without losing their biological characteristics is critical for next-generation point-of-care analyses of cancer. In the physics-based isolation devices, in addition to the geometrical characteristics of the cells (i.e. cells size) and the fluidic devices (i.e. the size of constrictions), the cellular mechanical properties such as stiffness, degree of compressibility, viscoelasticity and adhesiveness may also influence the separation efficiency. Motivated by the gap in knowledge and the impact on patient care, the main aim of this PhD research project is to investigate the role of cell bio-mechanical properties in cellular interactions with fluid flow and complex geometries. This will be achieved by characterising the flow in isolating medical devices using computer simulations and validation by experimental techniques. The proposed scientific analysis will enhance the current medical technology through optimum design and operating conditions. In summary, the core focus of this PhD research project, which falls under the medical technology field, is to develop improved experimental and computational approaches for the design of CTC-capturing medical devices.