NanoLaser/Microfluidic BioChip for Realtime Tumor Pathology

Through recent interdisciplinary scientific research, modern medicine has significantly advanced the diagnosis and treatment of disease. However, little progress has been made in reducing the death rate due to cancer, which remains the leading cause of death in much of the world. Pathologists routinely rely on microscopic examination of cell morphology using methods that originated over a hundred years ago. These staining methods are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and frequently in error. New micro-analytical methods1 (JBM, 1998; Harrison et al., 1993; Ramsey et al., 1995; Mauro Ferrari, Lynn Jelinski, 1994; Anderson et al., 1996; Carlson et al., 1996) for high speed (real time) automated screening of tissues and cells are critical to advancing pathology and hold the potential for improving diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients. By teaming experts in semiconductor physics, microfabrication, surface chemistry, film synthesis, and fluid mechanics with microbiologists and medical doctors, we are investigating nanostructured biochips to assess the condition of tumor cells by quantifying total protein content. This technique has the potential to quickly identify a cell population that has begun rapid protein synthesis and mitosis, characteristic of tumor cell proliferation. By incorporating microfluidic flow of cells inside the laser microcavity for the first time, we have enabled high throughput screening of cells in their native state, without need of chemical staining, in a sensitive nanodevice.