# Nano-Engineered Lab-on-a-Chip for Assessing HuR-Regulated Exosomes for Cancer Monitoring and Targeted Therapy

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE · 2020 · $593,521

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 Novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers are urgently needed to improve clinical outcomes of cancer.
Circulating exosomes are emerging as a new paradigm of “liquid biopsy” for non-invasive cancer diagnosis and
monitoring. Exosomes are small membrane vesicles of 30-150 nm in size that are secreted by most cells, and
growing evidence has shown important biological roles and clinical relevance of exosomes. In various
cancers, tumor-derived exosomes have been found to be accumulated in human biofluids, such as blood, and
enriched with a set of biomolecules from the cells of origin, such as specific proteins and RNAs, which may
constitute a “tumor signature”. However, the evaluation of clinical value of exosomes has been limited in part
due to challenges in isolation and analysis of such small, dynamic and molecularly diverse vesicles. To
address this obvious gap in both analytical technologies and precision medicine, here we propose to an
Exosome Fingerprinting Nano-Device (ExoFIND) system that offers unprecedented analytical capabilities for
measuring intravesicular protein markers carried by tumor-derived exosomes present in circulation. This new
technology will be adapted to examining exosomes derived from cell lines, animal models and human biofluids
to assess exosomal proteins, including Hu antigen R (HuR), as potential liquid biopsy-based markers for early
diagnosis, prognosis, and targeted therapy of cancer. The proposed studies will be carried out to accomplish
four Specific Aims: 1) Develop a general, high-resolution inkjet colloidal printing technology for standardized
and scalable fabrication of 3D nanoengineered bioassay devices; 2) Establish a 3D nano-engineered ExoFIND
system for integrative analysis of exosomal fingerprints of tumors; 3) Adapt and validate the ExoFIND system
as a blood-based detection platform to assess colorectal cancer (CRC)-derived exosomes as biomarkers for
tumor initiation and progression; 4) Adapt and validate the ExoFIND system as a companion assay to monitor
tumor response, drug resistance and prognosis of HuR-targeted therapy. Successfully carried out, our study
will provide important impetus to: (1) develop next-generation technologies with transformative and
reproducible analytical capabilities and minimal sample requirement, and (2) catalyze the exploration of
exosomes as a novel paradigm of liquid biopsy for precision oncology. Our overarching goal is to ultimately
provide a transformative platform technology for basic and translation investigation of a wide range of
malignancies and diseases.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9930568
- **Project number:** 5R01CA243445-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE
- **Principal Investigator:** Dan Alan Dixon
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $593,521
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-05-16 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9930568

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9930568, Nano-Engineered Lab-on-a-Chip for Assessing HuR-Regulated Exosomes for Cancer Monitoring and Targeted Therapy (5R01CA243445-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9930568. Licensed CC0.

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