Automated rare cells capture and labelling
Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) are tumoral cells issued from a primary tumor. They transiently circulate in the blood stream until they stop in specific organs to seed metastases. Metastases are involved in most cancer deaths and often develop characteristics which make them resistant to treatments that were efficient on the primary tumors. In this context, being able to study these CTCs represents several assets such as to monitor over time the disease progression as well as to develop the best-suited therapeutic strategies.
Several methods have been studied to capture and detect CTCs. They usually include a large number of steps (injection of several different samples, buffers, etc) and can last several hours.
This application note describes the automation of a 5-hour CTC capture and detection method including the precise volume control of more than 10 different solutions.
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