CAPTIS DIAGNOSTICS - SBIR CONCEPT AWARD - DEVELOPMENT OF NON-INVASIVE ASSAY FOR MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF PEDIATRIC LOW-GRADE GLIOMA

Current molecular characterization of pediatric low-grade glioma (pLGG) face significant challenges: (1) the gold standard tissue biopsy is invasive and often unfit for pLGG diagnosis and repetitive monitoring; (2) tissue biopsy is unable to capture the heterogeneity present within the entire tumor. The long-term goal of this proposal is to reduce the burden of pediatric central nervous system (CNS) tumors through developing paradigm shifting diagnostic tools. This proposal proposes to overcome these challenges by developing the first non-invasive extracellular vesicle (EV)-based assay for pLGG diagnosis with two specific aims: (1) developing nanomaterial-based technology for selective isolation of CNS-EV; (2) validate the nanomaterial-based technology in non-invasive molecular characterization of pLGG. Two-pronged approach will be used to achieve the milestones: (1) nanomaterial-based technology will be optimized to enrich CNS-EVs from plasma; (2) detecting clinically significant EV nucleic acid mutation from nanomaterial-isolated CNS-EVs from plasma of pLGG. This SBIR will result in (1) a nanomaterial-based kit for CNS-EV isolation; (2) proof-of-concept validation of non-invasive nanomaterial-based technology with pLGG plasma, which is ready for large clinical validation. Compared with the gold standard method invasive tissue biopsy, the proposed non-invasive technology is expected to provide a paradigm shift in the treatment and management of pLGG.