A University of Virginia (UVA) engineering researcher has received a $1.1 million National Institutes of Health grant to develop new tools for studying rare circulating cells that may provide insights into cancer, infection, and other diseases.
The four-year project, led by Nathan Swami, PhD, professor of electrical and computer engineering at UVA and affiliated faculty member with the UVA Cancer Center, aims to improve single-cell analysis by combining microfluidic devices, artificial intelligence, and computational methods.
Nathan Swami, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science.
UVA Engineering
Moving beyond molecular profiles
Many current cell analysis approaches focus on broad cell categories and molecular characteristics, including DNA and RNA. However, smaller cell populations within those groups may influence disease progression, treatment response, and immune activity.
Swami’s team is developing methods to identify and isolate these rare cell populations based on physical characteristics in addition to molecular features. The goal is to better understand how cells adapt and change during disease.
“We develop tools that can measure at the cellular and molecular scale, but focus on the physical properties of molecules and cells,” Swami said in a press release. “There are many functions in our body where physical properties make a huge difference.”
The project focuses on cellular plasticity, or the ability of cells to change physical properties in response to different conditions. These changes may help explain why small populations of cells can have significant effects despite representing only a fraction of the overall cell population.
Integrating microfluidics with AI
To identify and study these rare cells, Swami and his team will develop microfabricated devices capable of recognizing cells based on physical properties, along with neural network-based analytics to process large amounts of single-cell data.
The system is designed to integrate cell analysis, computational decision-making, and electronics directly onto microchips. This could allow researchers to identify cells of interest and collect specific subpopulations for further analysis.
“We want to integrate these tools with electronics and systems so researchers can measure single-cell physical properties on a microchip, and then make a decision on whether to collect a subpopulation of cells and develop analytical systems with computational functions to work with specific cells of interest,” Swami said.
The technology could eventually contribute to liquid biopsy approaches, which use blood or other accessible fluids to monitor disease instead of requiring surgical tissue biopsies. Potential applications include tracking circulating tumor cells associated with cancer progression and evaluating immune cell responses during infection.
The project, funded through an NIH R01 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, is scheduled to run through March 2030. The researchers will continue developing and validating the platform before potential clinical applications can be evaluated.
Note: This news summary was generated by AI based on a published press release, followed by a review from human editors.
