Article: Pratt ED, Stepansky A, Hicks J, Kirby BJ; (2014) “Single-Cell Copy Number Analysis of Prostate Cancer Cells Captured with Geometrically Enhanced Differential Immunocapture Microdevices”, Analytical Chemistry, 86 (22): 11013-11017
Abstract: Limited access to tumor tissue makes repeated sampling and real-time tracking of cancer progression infeasible. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) provide the capacity for real-time genetic characterization of a disseminating tumor cell population via a simple blood draw. However, there is no straightforward method to analyze broadscale genetic rear-rangements in this heterogeneous cell population at the single cell level. We present a one-step controllable chemical extraction of whole nuclei from prostate cancer cells captured using geometrically enhanced differential immunocapture (GEDI) microdevices. We have successfully used copy number profile analysis to differentiate between two unique cancer cell line populations of metastatic origin (LNCaP and VCaP) and to analyze key mutations important in disease progression.
Funding Acknowledgement: National Science Foundation [ECCS-0335765]; Cornell Center for the Microenvironment and Metastasis [U54 CA143876]
Funding Text: This work was performed in part at the Cornell Nano Scale Facility, a member of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant ECCS-0335765). Funding for these studies was provided by Grant U54 CA143876 from the Cornell Center for the Microenvironment and Metastasis.