Congratulations are in order for Samantha Pattenden, Paul Dayton (Biomedical Engineering) and Ian Davis (Genetics, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology) for their award, National Cancer Institute Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies Program R33.
Formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) patient biopsy samples are an important source of tumor tissue for cancer research and diagnostics. There is considerable interest in expanding the use of FFPE tissue to include epigenetic cancer signatures, which are heritable changes not associated with alteration in DNA sequence. We have invented a chemically inert reagent based on a metastable perfluorocarbon nanodroplet that our preliminary data indicate can be used to enhance and simplify processing of FFPE tissue for epigenetic analyses, including cancer diagnostics. We will explore and optimize aspects of this novel approach, with a goal towards commercial translation.