Lab-on-a-chip advance is promising for researchers
Imstain has already been used in several research projects, including one focused on the Nuclear Factor-kappa B (NF-kB) signaling pathway. NF-kB is a transcription factor crucial to the regulation of the immune system. Incorrect regulation of NF-kB has been linked to cancer, autoimmune diseases and viral infections.
"The NF-kB signaling pathway is interesting, since it is directly related to cancer, tumor necrosis and multiple sclerosis. The device that we designed was designed to help facilitate experiments looking at signaling pathways. We chose to study this signal pathway in particular, because we already have a relatively good understanding of the dynamics of the NF-kB pathways," Cheong, a graduate student who helped design and fabricate Imstain, said.
"In this particular pathway, the dynamics are important, because the timing of the NF-kB activity is very important to the control of the expression of certain genes."
The current goal of Levchenko's group is to bring Imstain to a clinical setting. The lab is focused on screening multiple cancer cell lines and has already screened a few thousand cell lines for useful information on cancer diagnostics and possible treatment options.
"This chip is scalable, so you can easily increase the number of cells that are passed, and the amount of tissue we need is almost invisible. So we will not necessarily interfere with some of the more conventional types of analysis yet we might end up with a lot more information using this device," Levchenko said.
"We are also using this device for regular research activities signaling pathways, and we see it as a research tool that can potentially truly change the way we perform diagnostic tests and research."
"The NF-kB signaling pathway is interesting, since it is directly related to cancer, tumor necrosis and multiple sclerosis. The device that we designed was designed to help facilitate experiments looking at signaling pathways. We chose to study this signal pathway in particular, because we already have a relatively good understanding of the dynamics of the NF-kB pathways," Cheong, a graduate student who helped design and fabricate Imstain, said.
"In this particular pathway, the dynamics are important, because the timing of the NF-kB activity is very important to the control of the expression of certain genes."
The current goal of Levchenko's group is to bring Imstain to a clinical setting. The lab is focused on screening multiple cancer cell lines and has already screened a few thousand cell lines for useful information on cancer diagnostics and possible treatment options.
"This chip is scalable, so you can easily increase the number of cells that are passed, and the amount of tissue we need is almost invisible. So we will not necessarily interfere with some of the more conventional types of analysis yet we might end up with a lot more information using this device," Levchenko said.
"We are also using this device for regular research activities signaling pathways, and we see it as a research tool that can potentially truly change the way we perform diagnostic tests and research."
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