SC6: Translating CTCs and ctDNA for Clinical Use

SUNDAY, MARCH 1 | 2:00 - 5:00 PM

ABOUT THIS COURSE:

Molecular Med Tri-Con attendees who would like to learn more about the current landscape of cfDNA and CTC applied to molecular diagnostics will benefit from this short course. The course will focus on cfDNA and CTC isolation and enrichment, assay development and products currently on the market. Finally, the group will see through the eyes of a practicing clinician to gain perspective on the hurdles faced when diagnostics are translated into the clinic.

COURSE AGENDA:

2:00 pm Moderator’s Welcome

Sonya Parpart-Li, PhD, RAC, Associate Director, Product Management, GRAIL, Inc.

2:05 cfDNA Enrichment and Assay Development

Sonya Parpart-Li, PhD, RAC, Associate Director, Product Management, GRAIL, Inc.

This section of the short course will focus on assay design and development for circulating tumor DNA. Technical challenges that arise from sample preparation will be discussed along with approaches to assay design, such as error reduction. Lastly, the focus will turn to tests recently approved by the FDA for clinical use.

2:45 CTC Isolation, Imaging, Enrichment and Overcoming Bottlenecks to Clinical Translation

Gozde Durmus, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University School of Medicine

This section will focus on the conventional technologies to isolate and enrich rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from whole blood in the clinical settings for diagnosis and treatment monitoring. Technical challenges that arise from the heterogeneity and rarity of CTCs will be discussed along with new label-free approaches in the field. The talk will also touch on the other circulating markers in blood for cancer early detection and disease monitoring.

3:15 Refreshment Break

3:45 Clinical Utility of cfDNA in Oncology

Prachi Kothari, DO, Assistant Attending, Department of Pediatrics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

This section will focus on the potential uses of cfDNA profiling in the clinical setting for diagnosis, monitoring treatment response, and minimal residual disease. The talk will also touch on the current advantages of cfDNA profiling as well as the hurdles for clinical utilization.

4:30 Q&A with Attendees/Speakers

• Pros and Cons of Each Analyte
• Associated Technologies for Isolation and Characterization

5:00 Course Ends

INSTRUCTORS:

Sonya Parpart-Li, PhD, RAC, Associate Director, Product Management, GRAIL, Inc.

Sonya Parpart-Li received her PhD in Tumor Biology from Georgetown University as part of a Graduate Partnership Program with the National Institutes of Health. Her dissertation work focused on deciphering heterogeneity among hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients at the molecular level using microarrays, functional assays and bioinformatics analysis to assess gene expression and methylation status. In 2014, she joined Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx) as part of their R&D team where she has developed next-generation sequencing based cancer diagnostics to address tumor heterogeneity and to detect clinically actionable genetic mutations in a multitude of cancer types. She helped launch the company’s first comprehensive noninvasive diagnostic test for detection of sequence mutations and structural alterations in circulating tumor DNA shed into the blood. Most recently, she led a product development team to create a class II device that detects microsatellite instability in CRC patients. Currently Sonya works as a Senior Staff Scientist in the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering developing NGS based assays for variant detection in both cfDNA and tissue.

Gozde Durmus, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Stanford University School of Medicine

Gozde Durmus did her postdoctoral research fellowship at Stanford University working with Prof. Ronald W. Davis and Prof. Lars Steinmetz at the Stanford Genome Technology Center. She received her PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering from Brown University in May 2013, with a minor in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship. She is also an alumna of the Ignite Program at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. She was a Fulbright Scholar at Boston University and received her MEng degree in Biomedical Engineering as a College of Engineering Fellow in 2009. She received her BS degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Middle East Technical University (METU) in 2007. She has been recently recognized among the "Top Innovators Under 35" (TR35) by the MIT Technology Review.

Prachi Kothari, DO, Assistant Attending, Department of Pediatrics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Prachi Kothari, DO received her medical degree from Nova Southeastern University. After completing pediatric residency at the University of Connecticut and pediatric hematology oncology fellowship at the combined programs at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and New York Presbyterian-Hospital, Weill Cornell Medicine, she is presently a clinical instructor in the department of pediatrics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She is also working in the Tsui Laboratory under the mentorship of Dr. Dana Tsui on understanding the feasibility and utility of noninvasive molecular profiling with cfDNA in patients with pediatric solid tumors. Her research projects have allowed her to now work alongside the clinical teams to implement the use of cfDNA analysis into the routine workflow allowing for real-time molecular profiling.

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