Bioimaging study of Biomarkers

Initiative #4

Simple Bioimaging Study To Investigate Levels of Biomarkers That Lead to Tumor Progression and Metastasis in Breast Cancer

Overview

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women in the United States, and it accounts for about 30% of all female cancer patients each year. Some of the significant challenges in the clinical management of breast cancer are the complications in diagnosis and treatment due to tumor heterogeneity. Breast cancer is known for its dynamic tumor progression, leading to various metastasis phases and associated symptoms.

Research proposal

Proper estimation of the tumor progression is crucial to tailor the diagnostics and therapies for each patient to address the inter- and intra-tumor heterogeneity in breast cancer. Tracing the tumor-specific biomarkers such as receptors, enzymes, and proteins is one way to track tumor progression, and many fluorescent-tagged molecules could interact with these biomarkers to identify and quantify them in different tumor types.

 

This proposal is to design a simple bioimaging study to investigate the levels of biomarkers in various kinds of human and mouse breast cancer cell lines to understand how they could lead to tumor progression and metastasis.

Materials

1. Cell Lines:

⦿  Human breast cancer cell lines: MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, T-47D, etc

⦿  Human cell line (non-cancerous): MCF-10A (breast epithelial), HEK293 (Kidney), etc.

⦿  Mouse breast cancer cell line: 4T1

⦿  Mouse cell line (non-cancerous): 3T3 fibroblast

2. Cell culture media

3. Fluorescent-tagged agents

4. Instrument/apparatus

  • Fluorescence microscope
  • UV/Vis spectrometer
  • Cell culture equipment: Biosafety cabinet, Incubator, Water bath, etc.

Study Design

  1. Literature survey
  2. Prepare samples and practice cell culture routines.
  3. Collect preliminary data
  4. Design and execute the main study to collect a large data set (progressively).
  5. Draw results

Initiatives

Scroll to Top