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点是实体瘤细胞过度增殖，这通常会使癌细胞进入患者的血液，转移到其他继发部位（转移级联）。这些被称为循环肿瘤细胞（CTCs）的细胞非常稀少（109个细胞中只有一个细胞），而且很难分离。同时，CTCs可以是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，它们的存在和数量预示着患者的预后。开发无化学物质、快速、高效的方法来分离活的ctc，同时又不失去其生物学特性，这对下一代癌症的即时分析至关重要。在基于物理的隔离装置中，除了细胞的几何特性（即细胞大小）和流体装置（即收缩尺寸）外，细胞的力学特性（如刚度、可压缩性、粘弹性和粘附性）也可能影响分离效率。由于知识上的差距和对病人护理的影响，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的相互作用中的作用。这将通过使用计算机模拟和实验技术验证来描述隔离医疗设备的流动来实现。提出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。综上所述，该博士研究项目属于医疗技术领域，其核心重点是为ctc捕获医疗设备的设计开发改进的实验和计算方法。

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.