A group of physicians and engineers at U of T have developed a new estrogen measurement method; the latest advancement in monitoring individuals with a high risk of breast cancer.
Using digital microfluidic technology, researchers can detect high levels of estrogen, which has been linked to increased risk of breast cancer.
“Normally, measuring estrogen in [humans] would require us to take a large part of the breast and extract the estrogen from complex breast tissue to be sent for analysis,” explains Dr. Noha Mousa, a final-year PhD student in medicine and one of the primary co-authors for the paper on the investigation. “This is very difficult and requires us taking quite a large sample from the individual.”
The conventional method for measuring estrogen levels is an invasive and painful biopsy and the technique is not used often. Analyzing the extracted tissue also requires hours of laboratory work because estrogen is embedded within a complex network of cells.
U of T researchers developed a method which employs the science of microfluidics to create a “lab-on-a-chip” that will make it easier for scientists to extract and analyze estrogen. The device electrically manipulates tiny droplets of fluid across the surface of a microchip. Electrical currents purify and separate these minute droplets, allowing them to be analyzed. The lab-on-a-chip enables scientists to use only a tiny sample of blood, serum, or breast tissue to extract hormones, such as estrogen. The results can be analyzed within minutes, making it easier for scientists to monitor individuals with a higher risk of breast cancer.
In addition to determining estrogen levels, this technique has many other useful applications. It can identify whether breast cancer therapy is working, test for problems like infertility, or detect illegal doping in athletes.
“We are also developing this technique to check for the efficiency of anti-estrogen medication in patients,” adds Mousa. “Usually, the anti-estrogen medication cannot be checked to see if it is working properly until the patient is diagnosed in some way, by which time it is too late. By checking the effects of the medication earlier, the option to switch to different anti-estrogen medication is possible.”
The project, which started over two years ago, brings together physicians, chemists, and engineers. Aaron Wheeler, director of the Wheeler Microfluidics Lab in the Department of Chemistry, and his team had been developing the lab-on-a-chip to move generally simple fluids prior to the collaboration.
“Something like this had not been done before, so we wanted to use a small amount of breast tissue, at first,” explains Mousa. “We decided to try it and the first experiment was successful, so that certainly gave us a big push to continue with the investigation.”
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While this estrogen measurement method is still relatively new, it provides a whole new range of possibilities.
“Our long-term goals for the project would certainly be to be able to integrate this technique into practice, but right now we are in our validation stage, making sure that the technique can cover a wide concentration of samples, as there are varying concentrations of estrogen in different individuals.”
Mousa works under the supervision of Robert F. Casper of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Faculty of Medicine as well as under Wheeler. Mais Jebrail, a PhD candidate in chemistry, is another lead author of the paper published in Science Translational Medicine.
“The most interesting part of this investigation was definitely the collaboration of different types of scientists,” says Mousa. “I am very fond of working with them. Certainly, I don’t know as much of the engineering and chemistry aspect, but I think that we would not have been able to do it alone, and likewise [Wheeler’s lab] would not have been to do it alone, so we all benefited from the collaboration.”
