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Biosensor created to rapidly detect cancer cells after chemotherapy


Researchers from Rutgers Cancer Institute (NJ, USA) have developed a biosensor device able to rapidly detect live cancer cells after chemotherapy. This device has the potential to become a point-of-care assessment of patient response to determine whether targeted chemotherapy drugs are working efficiently on individual cancer patients in order to provide precision medicine.

The study, published in the journal of Microsystems and Nanoengineering, details the device, which uses artificial intelligence and biosensor technology to count live cancer cells as they pass through electrodes with an accuracy of 95.9%. While current devices rely on staining cells for analysis which may limit characterization, the new portable device is able to provide immediate results without staining – leading to better disease management and personalized interventions.

Sources: Ahuja K, Rather GM, Lin Z et al. Toward point-of-care assessment of patient response: a portable tool for rapidly assessing cancer drug efficacy using multifrequency impedance cytometry and supervised machine learningMicrosyst. Nanoeng. 5(34), (2019); https://news.rutgers.edu/cancer-device-created-rutgers-see-if-targeted-chemotherapy-working/20190712#.XS8cgHt7n4Z