HoloMonitor technology facilitates cancer research at Florida International University

The first results of the ongoing collaboration between the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Florida International University (FIU) and Phase Holographic Imaging (PHI) were presented in April at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

Cancer stem cells are hypothesized by cancer researches to be the “cancer seed” that causes cancer to spread. The inability to treat metastatic cancer is believed to be a result of that current cancer drugs where primarily developed to kill normal cancer cells, not the cancer stem cells that spread the cancer to other parts of the body. Due to that just a few metastatic cancer cells in the blood stream is sufficient for the cancer to spread, there is today no diagnostic method for detecting metastatic cancer before it is too late in most cases.

The collaboration between FIU and PHI focus on the devastating transformation of breast cells into metastatic cancer stem cells. Spearheaded by Professor Deodutta Roy the researchers at FIU have successfully used PHI’s HoloMonitor® technology to study cancer stem cells ability to move when affected by various cell signals. Additionally, they have shown that these signals also affect the transformation of breast cells into cancer stem cells and their ability to form micro tumors. By interfering with these cell signals the researcher’s hope to develop new and improved cancer treatments. For additional information regarding the collaboration see Fight against cancer fueled by public-private collaborations and FIU's poster at AACR.

“We are particularly encouraged by HoloMonitor’s combined real-time capabilities to study cell motility and 3-dimensional morphology of living normal cells, breast cancer cells and cancer stem cells. We are enthusiastic about continuing the collaboration and anticipate that the HoloMonitor technology will contribute significantly to the understanding of metastatic breast cancer progression and development of novel early noninvasive diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers”, said Prof. Roy.

“It is deeply rewarding to see our HoloMonitor technology contributing to cancer research. The technology’s key strength is quantification of single cell responses to stimuli without affecting the cells, which is fundamental to reliably be able to study living cells”, said Peter Egelberg.

Links

• “About cancer stem cells” by European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute

For additional information, please contact:

Peter Egelberg, CEO

Tel: +46 703 19 42 74 | E-mail: peter.egelberg@phiab.se | Web: www.phiab.se

Phase Holographic Imaging (PHI) leads the ground-breaking development of time-lapse cytometry instrumentation and software. With the first instrument introduced in 2011, the company today offers a range of products for long-term quantitative analysis of living cell dynamics that circumvent the drawbacks of traditional methods requiring toxic stains. Headquartered in Lund, Sweden, PHI trades through a network of international distributors. Committed to promoting the science and practice of time-lapse cytometry, PHI is actively expanding its customer base and scientific collaborations in cancer research, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, stem cell biology, gene therapy, regenerative medicine and toxicological studies.