Activities

Researcher, Nanobiomics and Liquid Niche Unit, IRST IRCCS, Meldola (IT). In the context of “liquid biopsy”, we deepen the aspects of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), key players in the metastatic cascade. We analyze and sort CTCs (both single cells and clusters) from early-stage and metastatic breast cancer patients using DepArray. Molecular Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)-based (Illumina MiSeq and Ion Torrent S5) analyses are performed to assess the copy number aberrations (CNA) and mutation profiles. The aim of our research is to gain information about the molecular mechanisms involving CTC-related processes and their survival ability, supporting the goal of exploiting their application in patients’ surveillance and follow-up.