Lab-on-a-Chip microsystems for cancer diagnostics and for monitoring of cancer therapy

Stanislas Krawczyk
Laboratoire d'Électronique, Optoélectronique et Microsystèmes, LEOM - UMR CNRS/ECL n° 5512
École Centrale de Lyon, 36, av. G. de Collongue, 69134 Ecully Cedex, France

First, the status of the current research related to a potential application of Lab-on-a-Chip Microsystems in the field of cancer is reviewed and discussed. Then, we will briefly describe research works carried out in my research group and in collaborating laboratories. Our objective is to develop Lab-on-a-Chip analyzers, simple and autonomous, for cancer diagnostics and for monitoring of cancer therapy. The complete system will make use of disposable chip sensors of the size of a credit card and a control unit of the size of a book. The principle of sensors is based on the determination of the concentration of “cancer markers”, which are proteins and DNA fragments present in physiological fluids (blood, saliva…). Our approach is based on the separation of bio-molecules present in the solution by electro-chromatography, carried out in multiple microfluidic channels; this separation shall be coupled with nucleic acid hybridization reactions (DNA) or immunological reactions (proteins) in liquid phase or using appropriate ligands bound to the nano-structured separation matrix. The bio-molecules of interest are finally detected thanks to optical wave-guides integrated in the chip..

Keywords

Lab-on-a-Chip, cancer diagnostics, therapy monitoring