Date : 20/10/2011

Internship proposal for : Master 2

Laboratory
Laboratoire Physico-Chimie Curie
UMR 168 Institut Curie
11 rue Pierre et Marie Curie 75005 Paris
Website
Main discipline : Physico-Chemistry
Lab director : Jean François Joanny

Mentor
Jean-Louis Viovy
email : Cet e-mail est protégé contre les robots collecteurs de mails, votre navigateur doit accepter le Javascript pour le voir
tel +33 1 56 24 67 52

Subjects
1.: Cell biology and genotyping
2.: Target therapies for cancer and Circulating Tumour Cells
3.: Miniaturisation and Lab-on-chips

Tools and methodologies
1.: Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)
2.: Soft lithography
3.: Microfluidics

Summary of lab's interests

Macromolecules and Microsystems in Biology and Medicine (MMBM): MMBM is an interdisciplinary group of about 30 persons, dedicated to the application of physics and chemistry to biology and medicine. We develop both original methodologies for the study of DNA-protein transactions involved in cancer, and diagnosis methods directly relevant to cancer, such as mutation analysis, or the search and sorting of cancer cells. The group is also involved in the development of diagnosis tools for other types of pathologies, such as Alzheimer's disease, or infectious diseases.

Summary of project

Microfluidic systems provide a new paradigm for cell biology, allowing more accurate manipulation, addressing and study of individual cells. A microfluidic system based on self-assembled magnetic particles has recently been developed in our group [1]. This device is able to capture very rare cells, such as circulating tumour cells (CTC), in biological samples (blood, bone marrow). The captured cells can be analysed by bright field and fluorescence microscopy at high magnification. A new generation of microdevices will allow the implementation of an automated platform to perform high content genomic analyses of cancer cells inside the chip. We have already shown the possibility to perform Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) inside these devices. FISH is a powerful analysis method that allows for direct observation and quantification of specific gene amplicons in CTCs. The aim of this project is to develop a chip to detect the amplification of the her2 gene using FISH in CTCs in order to test the eligibility of metastatic breast cancer patients to personalized therapies. [1] A. Saliba et al., PNAS 2010 The objectives of this training are: - To optimize the FISH protocol inside the microfluidic device: reduction of time and amount of reagents - To optimize the integrated heating system for the FISH platform - To evaluate the her2 status of patients using relevant clinical samples As the research project is highly interdisciplinary, the candidate will have skills in cellular biology and/or in microfabrication and engineering. An experience in both domains will be appreciated. He/she will also have good communication skills in order to collaborate with scientists from different disciplines, especially medical doctors from the Curie Hospital.