Applications in personalized medicine

For the past two decades, advances in systems biology as well as micro and nanotechnologies allowed clinicians to envision personalizing the practice of medicine providing the right treatment for each patient after disease understanding and diagnosis at the molecular level. The research progresses in micro and nanotechnologies have produced innovative methods for sample processing, fluid handling and signal detection. Using integrated biomarker sensors it becomes possible to detect diseases in extremely sensitive and specific manner. Among biomarkers nucleic acids have enormous potential in non-invasive diagnostics and disease management (liquid biopsy) resulting in a great demand for accurate miRNA, mRNA, and ctDNA identification and profiling. For example, they may lead to screening of early stage cancer that is not detectable by tissue biopsy or imaging. This session will present some activities performed by research groups working in different but correlated fields such as the computational and functional oncology, the biotechnology and the biological surface science.