James P. Crowley։ 17-Year-Old Student Develops Blood-Based Method to Detect Pancreatic Cancer

James P. Crowley, Professor of Medicine Emeritus at Brown University, shared on LinkedIn:

“A 17-year-old student from Pennsylvania has developed a promising blood-based method for detecting pancreatic cancer by using magnetic nanospheres to isolate tumor-derived particles from blood samples.

Audrey Zheng, a senior at North Allegheny Senior High School, focused on extracellular vesicles that carry molecular information from cells and tested them for cancer-linked KRAS mutations.

For her project, Zheng used a cocktail of three antibodies designed to bind to cancer-associated molecules.

The antibodies were attached to magnetic nanospheres, allowing the system to target and separate tumor-derived extracellular vesicles from the much larger number of normal vesicles found in blood samples.

Method looks for cancer-linked KRAS mutations.

After isolating the targeted vesicles, Zheng examined their DNA for mutations in the KRAS gene.

KRAS mutations are strongly associated with pancreatic cancer and can provide an additional molecular signal that cancerous cells are present.”

17-year-old Pennsylvania student develops promising pancreatic cancer test that correctly detects 87% of cases and rules out disease in 87.5% of people

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