Rare Cell Analysis Services for Brain Tumors

Brain tumors are among the most aggressive and heterogeneous cancers known to man. Although modern neuroimaging techniques have facilitated their early detection and diagnosis, treatments for many brain tumors are still lacking. This is especially true for tumors that are diffuse, aggressive or located deep in the brain. Finding brain tumor-critical cell populations and tracing the cells of origin can advance current researchers' insights into the mechanisms of brain tumorigenesis.

Detection and analysis services for rare cells in brain tumors

The precise staging and grading of brain tumors can only be determined by surgical resection or surgical biopsy to obtain tumor samples. The process of obtaining tumor tissue is invasive, and the brain tumor tissue obtained by surgical resection or biopsy represents only a localized area and does not reflect the full biological information of the brain tumor. Tumor metastasis and progression can evolve dynamically over time, and repeated sampling is also unsafe. Therefore, Alfa Cytology offers several types of rare brain tumor cell assay analysis services to researchers in an attempt to obtain more information about brain tumorigenesis and progression from them.

Brain tumor-initiating cells (BTICs) analysis service

Brain tumors are usually composed of different morphologies of cells that express various neuro-spectral markers. Only a small fraction of tumor cells share the characteristics of stem cells, called BTICs. BTICs possess the ability to differentiate into multiple cell types, self-renew, and initiate brain tumors in vivo.

• To further characterize BTICs in brain tumors, we evaluate cell surface markers by flow cytometry.
• We can also classify the BTICs of interest for more specific characterization.
• We can also use single-cell RT-PCR to study differential gene expression within specific cell populations.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) analysis service

Proper brain tumor treatment relies on obtaining molecular information about the tumor to guide effective treatment decisions. EVs carry mutant genetic material and protein samples that cause malignant brain tumors. Because needle biopsy of brain tumors is invasive and complex, we have developed systems to capture and analyze EVs released from brain tumors.

Microfluidic chips offer the advantages of miniaturization, automation, and integration. We customize the capture solution based on the sample you provide and the purpose of your analysis, bringing separation and various analytical techniques to the microfluidic chip. This can provide a high-throughput, open, and stable sample-to-result platform for EVs capture and resolution. With this approach, we expect to provide researchers with analysis to optimize therapeutic approaches.

Of course, we also have different solutions for different customers to meet your diverse analytical needs.

Alfa Cytology offers researchers in the field of brain tumor research by providing assay analysis services for BTICs, CTCs, EVs, and many other types of rare brain tumor cells from which to obtain additional information about brain tumors. We can assist you in the optimization of brain tumor treatment protocols, biomarker discovery, and new target development. Please feel free to contact our staff to discover more about what we can do for you.