A research journal published by Danny Taller, Katherine Richards,  Zdenek Slouka, Satyajyoti Senapati, Reginald Hill, David Go and Hsueh-Chia Chang was recently published on the Lab on A Chip website  titled, 'On-chip surface acoustic wave lysis and ion-exchange nanomembrane detection of exosomal RNA for pancreatic cancer study and diagnosis.' This article exemplifies how well engineers and cancer researchers complement eachother.  

Abstract:
There has been increasing evidence that micro and messenger RNA derived from exosomes play important roles in pancreatic and other cancers. In this work, a microfluidics-based approach to the analysis of exosomal RNA is presented based on surface acoustic wave (SAW) exosome lysis and ion-exchange nanomembrane RNA sensing performed in conjunction on two separate chips. Using microRNA hsa-miR-550 as a model target and raw cell media from pancreatic cancer cell lines as a biological sample, SAW-based exosome lysis is shown to have a lysis rate of 38%, and an ion-exchange nanomembrane sensor is shown to have a limit of detection of 2 pM, with two decades of linear dynamic range. A universal calibration curve was derived for the membrane sensor and used to detect the target at a concentration of 13 pM in a SAW-lysed sample, which translates to 14 target miRNA per exosome from the raw cell media. At a total analysis time of ~1.5 h, this approach is a significant improvement over existing methods that require two overnight steps and 13 h of processing time. The platform also requires much smaller sample volumes than existing technology (~100 μL as opposed to ~mL) and operates with minimal sample loss, a distinct advantage for studies involving mouse models or other situations where the working fluid is scarce.