Nanotechnology-based strategies for biomarker analysis in cancer

• Autores: Marta Aranda Palomer
• Directores de la Tesis: Sara Abalde Cela (dir. tes.), Sergio Gómez Graña (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universidade de Vigo ( España ) en 2026
• Idioma: inglés
• Materias:
  • Ciencias médicas
    • Ciencias clínicas
      • Oncología
  • Ciencias tecnológicas
    • Tecnología médica
      • Otras especialidades de tecnología médica
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: Investigo
• Resumen

  • Cancer is one of the leading causes of disease-related mortality worldwide, still with a relatively poor survival rate. The frontiers of cancer research aim at providing new effective means for cancer diagnosis, monitoring and treatment. When cancer is identified earlier, patients may respond more effectively to treatment and can provide great probabilities of survival. (1) Nowadays, the use of technologies for cancer screening led to a decrease of the mortality in cancer not only by detecting the disease at earlier stages but also by detecting relapses in post-operative or post-treated patients. The use of computed tomography scanning (TC), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and mammography, are the most common imaging technologies used in cancer screening. However, in recent years, the technology used to screen the cancer has been changing, in order to avoid the higher risk of radiation in patients, invasiveness and low sensitivity. (2) One of the most appealing interests in nanotechnology research is to apply nanomaterials to cancer diagnosis, for example, in integrated biosensors to monitor this disease. (3) The main objective of this doctoral thesis will be to develop nanotechnology-based tools for the detection of soluble tumour biomarkers. To fulfil this goal different key enabling technologies will be used during this thesis: 1. Raman spectroscopy 2. Nanostructures design and synthesis for biosensing materials; 3. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy as sensing technique; 4. Microfluidics for system integration and miniaturisation. Once these technologies are developed, optimised and validated, they will be tested with real samples. Three different biological applications are proposed during this thesis. During the first period, human biofluids (lipoproteins, plasma, serum or biological surrogates), will be analysed by Raman and SERS spectroscopy, in order to monitor specific biomarkers of diagnose, with the application of different nanosensors. During the second period, injectable hydrogels with plasmonic nanoparticles will be developed and implemented intradermally in-vivo for remote SERS sensing. The integration of plasmonic nanoparticles in these hydrogels will allow the detection of cancer biomarkers in patients, by spectroscopic analysis. In the clinical practice, the development of machine learning tools will be used to analyse and classify different populations of cancer patients. Finally, the student will focus on the analysis of metabolites at the single cells level by applying microdroplets technology and microfluidics. In a proof-of-concept, the student will analyse the metabolomics from cancer patients.