Tracking tumor progression with soft sensors and a cellphone. Our collaborative work came out yesterday on Science Advances. Congratulations to Prof. Alex Abramson, Prof. Naoji Matsuhisa, and the team, and kudos to our mentor Prof. Zhenan Bao.

Paper title: A flexible electronic strain sensor for the real-time monitoring of tumor regression

Abstract: Assessing the efficacy of cancer therapeutics in mouse models is a critical step in treatment development. However, low-resolution measurement tools and small sample sizes make determining drug efficacy in vivo a difficult and time-intensive task. Here, we present a commercially scalable wearable electronic strain sensor that automates the in vivo testing of cancer therapeutics by continuously monitoring the micrometer-scale progression or regression of subcutaneously implanted tumors at the minute time scale. In two in vivo cancer mouse models, our sensor discerned differences in tumor volume dynamics between drug- and vehicle-treated tumors within 5 hours following therapy initiation. These short-term regression measurements were validated through histology, and caliper and bioluminescence measurements taken over weeklong treatment periods demonstrated the correlation with longer-term treatment response. We anticipate that real-time tumor regression datasets could help expedite and automate the process of screening cancer therapies in vivo.

Publication:

  1. A flexible electronic strain sensor for the real-time monitoring of tumor progression Alex Abramson, Carmel Chan, Yasser Khan, Alana Mermin-Bunnell, Naoji Matsuhisa, Robyn Fong, Rohan Shad, William Hiesinger, Parag Mallick, Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, and Zhenan Bao Science Advances, 2022 Media coverage: USC News, Stanford News, Georgia Tech News, and many more.

    Assessing the efficacy of cancer therapeutics in mouse models is a critical step in treatment development. However, low-resolution measurement tools and small sample sizes make determining drug efficacy in vivo a difficult and time-intensive task. Here, we present a commercially scalable wearable electronic strain sensor that automates the in vivo testing of cancer therapeutics by continuously monitoring the micrometer-scale progression or regression of subcutaneously implanted tumors at the minute time scale. In two in vivo cancer mouse models, our sensor discerned differences in tumor volume dynamics between drug- and vehicle-treated tumors within 5 hours following therapy initiation. These short-term regression measurements were validated through histology, and caliper and bioluminescence measurements taken over weeklong treatment periods demonstrated the correlation with longer-term treatment response. We anticipate that real-time tumor regression datasets could help expedite and automate the process of screening cancer therapies in vivo.

    @article{abramson2022flexible, title = {A flexible electronic strain sensor for the real-time monitoring of tumor progression}, author = {Abramson, Alex and Chan, Carmel and Khan, Yasser and Mermin-Bunnell, Alana and Matsuhisa, Naoji and Fong, Robyn and Shad, Rohan and Hiesinger, William and Mallick, Parag and Gambhir, Sanjiv Sam and Bao, Zhenan}, journal = {Science Advances}, year = {2022}, doi = {10.1126/sciadv.abn6550}, thumbnail = {abramson2022flexible.jpg}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abn6550}, pdf = {abramson2022flexible.pdf}, note = {Media coverage: }, media_1 = {USC News, }, media_1_link = {https://viterbischool.usc.edu/news/2022/09/new-wearable-device-measures-the-changing-size-of-tumors-below-the-skin/}, media_2 = {Stanford News, }, media_2_link = {https://news.stanford.edu/2022/09/16/new-wearable-device-measures-changing-size-tumors-skin/}, media_3 = {Georgia Tech News, }, media_3_link = {https://news.gatech.edu/news/2022/09/16/new-wearable-device-measures-changing-size-tumors-below-skin}, media_4 = {and many more.}, media_4_link = {https://www.altmetric.com/details/136017805} }

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