Cancer Chip Caputers Cancer Cell (yellow)

Microfluidic chips that can capture cancer cells circulating in the blood have existed for a few years, but a chip that can also analyze specific biomarkers is a next generation device, and that’s moving closer to reality from work Mehmet Toner and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital reported recently. Detecting a specific mutation could indicate how aggressive the tumor is, or how well chemotherapy is working-and thus an important advance in both diagnostics and drug development.  MORE

Image Credit: Massachusetts General Hospital BioMEMS Resource Center and Technology Review