NTI Core Research Project: Biosensors

Project Title:  Nano-based Methods to Detect Immune Responses to Therapeutic Monoclonal Anti-bodies

Team Coordinator: Kambiz Pourrezaei, Ph.D., Drexel University

Drexel University Team Members:  Elisabeth Papazoglou, Ph.D., Wan Shih, Ph.D., Wei-Heng Shih, Ph.D.  Fox Chase Cancer Center Team Members:  Gregory Adams, Ph.D., Hossein Borghaei, D.O., MS, Matthew Robinson, Ph.D., Louis Weiner, MD.  University of Pennsylvania Team Member:  Charles Johnson, Ph.D.

Project Summary: To determine if nanocantilever-based antibody capture methods offer superior sensitivity and specificity as compared with standard ELISA assays for detecting cancer biomarkers and assessing immune activation resulting from treatment with antibody-based therapeutic agents.

The ability of piezoelectric nanocantilevers to detect low levels of circulating proteins in human blood samples will be assessed and optimized.  Archived blood samples from cancer patients and healthy controls will be assayed for cancer biomarkers and an active clinical trial will be performed in which circulating host-derived anti-EGFR antibodies will be assessed in blood samples from patients treated with two different monoclonal antibodies, cetuximab and panitumumab, which have different mechanisms of actions.

They will determine the limits of sensitivity and and specificity of a piezoelectric nanocantilever based assay to detect rare antigen-specific T-cells in the peripheral blood.

The team will also determine if a quantum dot bead assay offers superior sensitivity and specificity compared to a standard ELISA assay to detect a.) circulating host-derived anti-EGFR antibody in patients treated with the above mentioned monoclonal AB’s and b.) antigen specific T-cells in the peripheral blood.