Seminar : Fluorescence Detection of Rare Circulating Cells In Vivo: Technology, Applications and Future Prospects

Mark NIEDRE, associate Professor of Bioengineering (Northeastern University, Boston) will give a talk Friday 27th april 2018 at 10:00am in the meeting room of the IPB building (Institut de Physique Biologique, 4 rue Kirschleger,  Strasbourg).

Title: Fluorescence Detection of Rare Circulating Cells In Vivo:  Technology, Applications and Future Prospects

Abstract: Many important biological processes and diseases involve circulating cells in the bloodstream. For example, cancer metastasis is mediated by the dissemination of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) via the blood.  As such, study of CTCs is of great interest in pre-clinical and clinical research.  Most methods involve removal, purification and analysis of small blood samples. However, it has been shown that these methods frequently yield count errors, miss rare cell populations entirely, and in the case of animal models may induce an undesired inflammatory processes. In contrast, “in vivo flow cytometry” allows non-invasive and continuous optical detection of circulating cells directly in the bloodstream. Our group has a particular interest in developing technologies for fluorescence detection of rare circulating cells, specifically fewer than 100 cells per mL of blood. Rare cells are critical in cancer metastasis, and yet are difficult to detect with microscopy-based methods.  In this talk, I will first discuss our technology – “Diffuse in vivo Flow Cytometry” (DiFC) - which uses diffuse photons to sample large circulating blood volumes from superficial blood vessels. Through use of careful optical design, electronic filtering and signal processing approaches, we are able to detect and enumerate single rare circulating cells in bulk tissue. I will also discuss applications of DiFC in the basic study of disease development, response to new treatments, and potentially ultimately in humans.

Biography: Mark Niedre is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering at Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. His research interests include fluorescence molecular sensing and imaging with diffuse light, and the in vivo study of rare circulating tumour cells in vivo.  Prior to joining Northeastern, he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Hospital. He received his Ph.D from the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto, Canada and his B.Eng. in Engineering Physics from McMaster University, Canada. He is currently an Editorial Board member for the Journal of Biomedical Optics. He was a prior recipient of the Soreen Bus Outstanding Researcher Award at Northeastern University, the Massachusetts Life Sciences New Investigator Award, and the Terry Fox Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from the National Cancer Institute of Canada.