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EACR Industry Webinar with Menarini Silicon Biosystems: "Extending the Liquid Biopsy Concept from Blood to Cerebrospinal Fluid"
Virtual Event, Worldwide
27 April 2023
(Click here to add to your Calendar)
16:00 CEST on Zoom
This free webinar is hosted in collaboration with Menarini Silicon Biosystems, one of our valued EACR Industry Partners. We are delighted to welcome Cäcilia Köstler and Bernhard Polzer who will discuss their research exploring the potential of cerebrospinal fluid liquid biopsies.
Talk Abstract
In patients with leptomeningeal metastases (LM), cancer cells have disseminated to the brain and colonize the meninges. Unfortunately, patients affected with LM are often at a late stage of the disease with dismal prognosis. By investigating cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), low numbers of disseminated cancer cells (DCCs) and DNA released from cancer and normal cells (cell-free DNA; cfDNA) can be detected. To develop innovative applications for predictive biomarkers, we extended our concept for “molecular Liquid Biopsy” from blood to CSF.
As a proof of principle, CSF samples of patients with different primary cancer entities and suspected LM were processed to collect molecular information on the disease. DCCs could be enriched by FDA-approved EpCAM-ferrofluid based CellSearch® technology and isolated as single cells. After whole genome amplification these cells could be confirmed as tumor cells via copy number alteration (CNA) profiling. The parallel isolation and amplification of cfDNA from the same sample achieved subsidiary results. By DEPArray™ analysis of FFPE material derived from primary tumor or different metastatic sites, also brain, the CNA profiles could support thesis of heterogeneity in the tumor environment. In the future, this workflow presents an option for molecular diagnosis in clinical routine and could be utilized to obtain fundamental insights into treatment options for these patients.
Speaker Bios
Cäcilia Köstler received her diploma degree 2008 in Biology at the JMU in Würzburg, Germany. As an awardee she worked at the Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry in Munich in the field of protein biochemistry and collected expertise with biomaterials for bone grafting at the University of Bayreuth. In 2013 she entered the field of cancer research at the Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine in Regensburg (Prof. CA Klein), where she is a specialist for single cell enrichment, isolation and molecular downstream analyses. Therefore she was awarded with the poster price at the EACR Liquid Biopsy symposium in Bergamo 2019. While leading projects at the University of Regensburg (faculty of experimental medicine and therapy) she finishes her PhD about CSF liquid biopsy, the topic she is going to present today. She is mother of three children and woman in charge for gender equal opportunities at her working environment.
Dr. Bernhard Polzer, M.D. has studied medicine in Munich and worked as a scientist at the Institute of Immunology, University Munich and the Institute of Pathology, University Regensburg. There, together with Prof. Christoph Klein, he established the first certified diagnostic lab for single cell analysis. Currently, he is deputy head of the division "Personalized Tumor Therapy" of Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine in Regensburg, Germany. He is also heading the group "molecular and cellular diagnostics" which focusses on the development of single cell technologies in liquid biopsies and the clinical application of diagnostic assays for systemic cancer.
Session Chair
Nicolò Manaresi PhD, got his Degree and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of Bologna, Italy, in 1993 and 1999, respectively. He was Research assistant at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland. Cofounder of Silicon Biosystems in 1999, he was president and CEO through the early stages of the company, where he now serves as CTO. Co-author of more than 50 scientific papers, he received the IEEE 2003 International Solid Circuit Conference Jan Van Vessem Award for outstanding European papers . He is a co-inventor behind more than 30 International Patents.
Open to all, you do not need to be an EACR member to attend.
