There is a critical need to measure the complex behavior of cancer cells, the manner in which they interactwith immune system cells, and to phenotype both cell sets not only for their cell lineage status but also forthe relative activation state of the signaling networks that drive their biology. It is thought that signalingnetwork status is reflective of a cancer's aggressiveness, its response to chemotherapy, as well how itinfluences or evades the immune response. We will extend the number of parameters that can be measuredsimultaneously for cytometric approaches by creating a new class of Raman Scatter measurable reagents,using Composite Organic-Inorganic Nanoparticles (COINs). The technique we will use adapt our recentlydeveloped procedure applying monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies against phosphorylation sites [1-10](and Preliminary Results). We will apply the COINS technology, in collaboration with the creators of theseunique nanoparticles from the Berlin group at Intel, to first validate a series of Raman spectroscopic probesfor important kinase phosphoproteins in microarray formats. With validated sets of reagents we will refinesimultaneous, multi-parameter staining and visualization of cells using Raman signatures as validated withfluorophore-based staining to extend the number of cytometrically determined parameters per cell. Finally,we will use the additional, simultaneous measurements to construct larger signaling networks usingBayesian computation; this approach will be applied to data from normal B cells and lymphomas fromselected patients. Taken together, this concerted approach will allow for us to create, on a patient by patientbasis, inference maps of signaling system architecture across multiple, highly informative, signaling nodesfor established and novel signaling systems in normal cells and cancer. These techniques have the potentialto create rich biomarkers that are informative not only of patient status, but provide detailed informationabout the signaling systems against which chemotherapies act as well as provide mechanistic conclusionsabout individual cancers and patient immune status.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 228 publications
