TheraSonic · Theranostic platform for early diagnosis and treatment of cancer based on Acoustofluidics

This proposal develops a pioneering microscale ultrasound-based system to enrich extracellular vesicles (EVs) from µL volumes of whole blood and cancer spheroids, targeting early cancer detection and revolutionizing therapeutic approaches.EVs, nanoscale particles (30-1000 nm) released by mammalian cells, hold potential as biomarkers for cancer detection and as drug delivery vehicles due to their cell-specific cargo and ability to penetrate cell membranes. However, current isolation methods like centrifugation are time-consuming, require large sample volumes, and lack purity and scalability, limiting clinical application, particularly in high-throughput biomarker discovery and therapeutic development.I propose to overcome these critical barriers through the creation of TheraSonic, a disruptive acoustic force-based microfluidic platform that leverages a novel particle trapping effect in bulk volumes. TheraSonic will enable the unprecedented enrichment of EVs from µL biofluid samples, offering transformative improvements in purity, scalability, and throughput. By integrating spheroid culturing and multi-omics, this platform will reveal insights into cancer heterogeneity.Moreover, TheraSonic uniquely enables the selective isolation of EV subpopulations based on size, surface markers, and acoustic properties. This unprecedented resolution will uncover highly specific cancer vesicle profiles that current methods fail to detect, leading to the discovery of highly sensitive and specific cancer biomarkers.The scalable nature of the platform will be harnessed to significantly increase capacity and throughput, providing needed EV material for novel autologous EV therapies. Combined with organ-on-a-chip technologies, it will facilitate the development of individualised cancer treatments on an unmatched scale.In summary, TheraSonic represents a disruptive innovation that will induce a paradigm shift in EV enrichment, profoundly impacting cancer research and treatment.