# Single Circulating Vesicle Analysis for Early Cancer Detection

> **NIH NIH R21** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2021 · $146,160

## Abstract

Analysis of circulating extracellular vesicles (EV) have advanced over the last several years but challenges
remain to reproducibly analyze samples in a clinical setting. If more sensitive and reproducible methods could
be established, they would have far reaching applications in early cancer detection, measuring patient
response to drugs, understanding tumor heterogeneity and discriminating different diseases. The problem is
potentiated in pancreatic cancer (PDAC), where early detection methods are lacking, reproducibility of
measurements has been a problem and an understanding of vesicle heterogeneity is missing. Furthermore,
most existing technologies rely on bulk measurements which are inherently less sensitive since markers of
interest are diluted (Yang et al., 2017, Sci Transl Med, 9). The goal of this proposal is to explore a novel single
EV analysis (SEA) method (Lee et al, 2018, ACSnano, in press) to shed light on tumor EV (TEV) biomarker
composition in PDAC. Specifically, we propose to i) integrate the method with on-chip microfluidics for improved
sample handling while adding a MAb-DNA barcoding step for signal amplification and multiplexing (aim 1) and ii)
expand and test the approach for point-of-care analyses of TEV in clinical samples (aim 2). The proposed single
vesicle method has the potential to transform PDAC cancer research and clinical practice. It will allow us to discover
the make-up of TEV in clinical specimen with far reaching applications for early detection (analysis of rare proteins)
and treatment t evaluation in different types of cancers.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10129319
- **Project number:** 5R21CA236561-03
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** RALPH WEISSLEDER, MD, PhD
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $146,160
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-04-12 → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10129319

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10129319, Single Circulating Vesicle Analysis for Early Cancer Detection (5R21CA236561-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10129319. Licensed CC0.

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