BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Translational Tumor Biology using Microfluidics
DTSTART:20190318T091500
DTEND:20190318T101500
DTSTAMP:20260407T171817Z
UID:c508ff8767500058e994725e5d08a4bbf1af29870c7526c5890dfebe
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr. Christoph Merten\, European Molecular Biology Laboratory -
  EMBL\, Heidelberg (D)\nBIOENGINEERING SEMINAR\n\nAbstract:\nDroplet micro
 fluidic approaches offer significant benefits for translational cancer res
 earch. In these systems\, tiny aqueous droplets (picoliter volumes) surrou
 nded by oil serve as independent assay vessels. Due to the small assay vol
 umes\, large-scale screens can be carried out at very high throughput (ana
 lyzing hundred thousands of samples in a single experiment)\, at the singl
 e-cell level and/or using limited patient material (e.g. tumor biopsies). 
 We exploit these conceptual advantages in three different research fields:
 \n\n1.) Screening large immune repertoires to derive anti-cancer antibodie
 s. By co-encapsulating plasma cells and cancer cells into the same droplet
 \, we can select directly for antibodies that specifically bind to (potent
 ially unknown) tumor antigens or for antibodies with (ant)agonistic action
  on tumor-associated GPCRs and ion channels. Furthermore\, the technology 
 can also be used to isolate cytotoxic T-cells with desired specificities.\
 n\n2.) Personalized cancer therapy. We have recently demonstrated fast and
  cost-efficient screening of human pancreatic tumor biopsies for their sen
 sitivity to systematic drug combinations (results are available within 48h
  after surgery at costs of <150 US$)\, and we successfully identified part
 icularly potent hits that had not been described previously. We now perfor
 m complementary studies in mouse models\, implement transcriptomic and ima
 ge-based readouts and adapt the technology for immune oncology approaches.
 \n\n3.) Massively parallelized genetic assays. We routinely perform single
 -cell transcriptomics (modified DropSeq)\, genotypic sorting of single-cel
 ls and deterministic barcoding of cellular cDNA (e.g. to analyze the trans
 criptome of cancer cells under hundreds of different conditions in paralle
 l). These approaches are particularly powerful for analyzing resistance me
 chanisms in cancer cells.\nIn parallel\, we are highly active in the devel
 opment of microfluidic hardware (including the construction of instruments
 )\, customized microfluidic chips and control software for specific applic
 ations and readout systems. Taken together this enables entirely new avenu
 es in translational cancer research.\n\nBio:\nPhD 2004\, University of Fra
 nkfurt.\nPostdoctoral research at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology\
 , Cambridge.\nJunior group leader at the Institut de Science et d'Ingénie
 rie Supramoléculaire\, Strasbourg.\nGroup leader at European Molecular Bi
 ology Laboratory (EMBL) since 2010.\nGroup leader in the Molecular Medicin
 e Partnership Unit.\n\nZoom link for attending remotely: https://epfl.zoom
 .us/j/338924706\n 
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717
STATUS:CONFIRMED
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR