MRNA based CAR T-cells manufactured by two-step electroporation selectively kill target cancer cells.

This study reports a sensitive, low-cost and speedy circulating microRNA (miRNA) detection method called iLluminate-miRNA, for potential clinical applications at point-of-care. The central component of the iLluminate-miRNA is the low-cost disposable device that has a combination of microscale and nanoscale metallic structures. These structures are powered with low energy (<microwatts) to selectively concentrate the fluorophore-labelled target miRNA-DNA duplexes in nanoscale metallic structures called hotspots. Then, the fluorescence intensity is enhanced using metal-fluorophore interaction for sensitive, low-cost and speedy detection. Compared to the current gold standard, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, our iLluminate-miRNA method successfully improved assay time (from 7 to 1 h), cost (from $2000 to $60) and sensitivity of miRNA detection (from micro molar to femto molar). For these reasons, the iLluminate-miRNA platform has great potential to be used for diagnostic purposes at point-of-care settings.

We show that negative dielectrophoresis (DEP) spectroscopy is an effective transduction mechanism of a biosensor for the diagnosis and prognosis of pancreatic cancer using the biomarker CA 19-9. A substantial change in the negative DEP force applied to functionalized polystyrene microspheres (PM) was observed with respect to both the concentration level of the pancreatic cancer biomarker CA 19-9 and the frequency of the electric field produced by a pearl shaped interdigitated gold micro-electrode. The velocity of repulsion of a set of PM functionalized to a monoclonal antibody to CA 19-9 was calculated for several concentration cutoff levels of CA 19-9, including 0 U/mL and 37 U/mL, at the frequency range from 0.5 to 2 MHz. The velocity of repulsion of the PM from the electrode was determined using a side illumination and an automated software using a real-time image processing technique that captures the Mie scattering from the PM. Since negative DEP spectroscopy is an effective transduction mechanism for the detection of the cutoff levels of CA 19-9, it has the potential to be used in the early stage diagnosis and in the prognosis of pancreatic cancer.