Surface Plasmon Resonance -Tilted Fibre Bragg Grating (SPR-TFBG) fibre optic biosensor to detect metastasized cancer cells in cancer patients

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Spartan Bioscience Inc. is a leader in point-of-care DNA testing. They were the first to complete sample-to-result DNA testing system in medicine and have the Spartan RX and DX-12 DNA testing instruments currently on the market. Spartan is now currently interested in developing new technologies for the detection of metastasized tumor cells in cancer patients. The detection of cancer metastasis is an ongoing problem when utilizing the current technologies. Recently, a group at Carleton have developed a fibre optic biosensor that relies on Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) to detect the attachment of biomolecules, and even whole cells, onto the fibre's surface. This SPR device relies on a Tilted Fibre Bragg Grating (TFBG), imprinted into the fibre's core, to reflect light from the surface of the fibre and back down the fibre to a detector. Attachment events at the surface of the fibre are detected as changes in the SPR signal, which can include attachment/deattachment of cells to the fibre. The surface of the fibre can be functionalized to make it more cancer-specific with the attachment of DNA aptamers that recognize, and bind to, specific proteins uniquely expressed at the surface of the cancer cell. Spartan Bioscience has encountered challenges in developing such technology in that it does not have the in-house capabilities to a) manufacture such SPR-TFBG fibres, b) functionalize the surface of such fibres with DNA aptamers, or c) test them in cell culture for cancer versus non-cancer binding of cells. The company also does not have the analytical tools or the research personnel to solve this problem. The NSERC ENGAGE grant will be utilized as proof-of- principle testing of the fibre optic biosensor to a) attach DNA aptamers against mucin-1, a breast cancer marker, to the fibre itself and b) test for the attachment of a breast cancer cell (MCF7) versus non-cancer cell (MCF10). This endeavor will represent a new collaboration between Spartan Bioscience and our lab and will involve a multidisciplinary team of researchers (engineers, chemists and biochemists) to solve the problem. The duration of this project is expected to be 6 months and will serve as a basis for applications for a CIHR/NSERC CHRP grant.