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

斯巴达生物科学公司是医疗现场DNA检测领域的领先者。他们是第一个在医学上完成样本到结果DNA检测系统的公司，目前市场上有斯巴达RX和DX-12 DNA检测仪器。斯巴达目前对开发检测癌症患者转移的肿瘤细胞的新技术感兴趣。在利用现有技术时，癌症转移的检测是一个持续存在的问题。最近，卡尔顿的一个研究小组开发了一种光纤生物传感器，该传感器依靠表面等离子体共振(SPR)来检测生物分子甚至整个细胞在纤维表面的附着。这种SPR设备依靠压印在光纤核心上的倾斜光纤布拉格光栅(TFBG)来反射来自光纤表面的光，并沿着光纤返回到探测器。在纤维表面的附着事件被检测为SPR信号中的变化，这可以包括细胞与纤维的附着/脱附。纤维的表面可以被功能化，通过附着DNA适体来使其更具癌症特异性，DNA适体识别并结合在癌细胞表面唯一表达的特定蛋白质。斯巴达生物科学公司在开发此类技术时遇到了挑战，因为它没有a)生产此类SPR-TFBG纤维的内部能力，b)使用DNA适配子对此类纤维表面进行功能化处理，或c)在细胞培养中对它们进行癌症与非癌症结合的测试。该公司也没有分析工具或研究人员来解决这个问题。NSERC Engage赠款将被用作光纤生物传感器的原理验证测试，以a)将针对乳腺癌标记物粘蛋白-1的DNA适配子连接到纤维本身，以及b)测试乳腺癌细胞(MCF7)与非癌细胞(MCF10)的连接。这项努力将代表斯巴达生物科学公司和我们实验室之间的新合作，并将涉及一个由多学科研究人员(工程师、化学家和生物化学家)组成的团队来解决问题。该项目的期限预计为6个月，并将作为申请CIHR/NSERC CHRP赠款的基础。

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.