# Biomedical Engineering Core > **NIH NIH P20** · UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER · 2024 · $243,088 ## Abstract ABSTRACT Precision Medicine (PM) is revolutionizing the care of patients by tailoring treatment options based on the molecular composition of their disease. To secure the necessary molecular information, liquid biopsies represent an exciting source of molecular markers because of the minimally invasive nature of securing them, the plethora of marker types (circulating biological cells, cell-free molecules [proteins, micro-RNA, cell-free DNA] and extracellular vesicles [exosomes]), and the diverse molecular information they carry. The challenge with the use of these exciting markers is that the disease-associated liquid biopsy markers can be a vast minority in a mixed population making it difficult to secure high-quality results. This is partly due to a lack of platforms for their efficient isolation and tools to analyze the limited numbers of diseased molecules contained in a liquid biopsy isolate. The use of microfluidics has become a valuable platform technology to generate high quality isolates that can be fed into molecular analysis technologies such as NGS to secure results to guide treatment decisions in the clinic (i.e., translational research) as well as driving basic discoveries. The KIPM COBRE’s Biomedical Engineering Core (BME Core) is a unique Core within the medical enterprise and consists of two units: (i) Plastics Engineering Unit (PEU); and (ii) Liquid Biopsy Unit (LBU). The PEU has enabling infrastructure built during the Phase 1 funding of KIPM including a state-of-the-art cleanroom with patterning equipment possessing the ability to generate both microstructures and nanostructures and production equipment to support large-scale clinical studies associated with KIPM’s RPLs and outside users. The LBU uses microfluidic devices emanating from the PEU that possess unprecedented figures-of-merit to analyze liquid biopsy markers. The LBU also has liquid handling robots to automate the microfluidic workflow. Both units operated collaboratively to support the Phase 1 junior faculty projects as well as many external projects from the KU community and nationally. The activities of the BME Core and their unique hardware and molecular assays are enabled by collaborations with a P41 NIH National Biotechnology Resource Center, directed by the mPI of KIPM (Soper), and whose mission is to deliver innovative technologies into the biomedical community. In the KIPM Phase 2, the BME Core will seek to add new resource capabilities to both units support the RPLs to facilitate their securing funding from different federal agencies. These capabilities include nanopatterning to generate new innovative tools and assays for the analysis of a variety of molecular types, the efficient isolation of cell free DNA to support NGS studies by the RPLs using a unique microfluidic device, and a highly innovative single-molecule sequencing strategy. The BME Core will strive to develop business models to sustain long-term operation, increase visibility to recruit ext... ## Key facts - **NIH application ID:** 10849361 - **Project number:** 2P20GM130423-06 - **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER - **Principal Investigator:** Steven Allan Soper - **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.) - **Funding institute:** NIH - **Fiscal year:** 2024 - **Award amount:** $243,088 - **Award type:** 2 - **Project period:** 2019-02-15 → 2029-03-31 ## Primary source NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10849361 ## Citation > US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10849361, Biomedical Engineering Core (2P20GM130423-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10849361. Licensed CC0. --- *[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*