Authors:

Novia Jiang

Date Created:

Not specified

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About Paper:

In a patient with cancer, metastasis may take place, where cancer cells detach from the original tumor, travel to other parts of the body, and form new tumors. This process is associated with later stages of cancer and cancer-related deaths. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are such cells involved with metastasis. Like other cancer cells, CTCs display great heterogeneity in terms of shape and biomarker expression. This makes profiling them with computer vision and machine learning to be difficult. This project aims to investigate morphological changes and proliferation rates of CTCs based on microenvironment. Mono- and co-cultures of Brx50 (patient-derived breast cancer CTCs) and hTERT (fibroblasts) are experimented with to simulate the metastasis of breast tumor to the lungs. Analysis of area and shapes of the CTCs is completed manually using the software FIJI and through computer vision on MATLAB. Additionally, the project also involved analyzing differential morphology in Brx68 extracellular matrix (ECM). Through understanding metastasis better, can patient outcomes improve with development of advanced treatments. Olivia Cox:

Source:

Brown / SPRINT|Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards (UTRA)

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Co-authors:

Novia Jiang