Development of a high-throughput diagnostic assay for lung cancer

A107

Lung cancer is the largest cancer killer of both men and women. The correct histopathological diagnosis of a tumor is critical in determining the appropriate treatment. However, precise classification of tumors remains a significant biomedical challenge. Furthermore, tumors of similar histology can have different clinical outcomes, stressing the need for more detailed molecular classifications. Our overall goal is to generate a panel of cell-specific molecules that can be used to classify tumor types and utilize these cancer specific reagents in a high throughput diagnostic assay. Using phage display technologies, we have developed methods to isolate peptides that bind to specific tumor cell lines, even in the absence of knowledge of the cell surface receptor profile. By this method, we have identified targeting peptides for 5 lung cancer cell lines and have determined their binding profile to a large panel of lung cancer cell lines. The isolated peptides display remarkable cell-specificities, and are able to discriminate between normal and cancerous cells as well as different lung tumor cells. Furthermore, these peptides can be conjugated to fluorescent nanoparticles (quantum dots, Qdots) in order to rapidly assess cellular binding both quantitatively and qualitatively. This fluorescent-based assay can be multiplexed so that multiple binding events can be examined on a single sample and is amenable to using fresh or fixed cells. At the end of this project we will have developed a novel diagnostic platform that can be expanded to clinical samples.