Page 15 Improving triage and diagnosis of skin cancer patients in primary care setting through non-invasive sampling and detection of molecular bio markers from skin interstitial fluid Prof Sylvain Ladame Imperial College London, Department of Bioengineering Skin cancer diagnosis is most commonly derived from visual or digital inspection of a skin lesion by a trained professional, ideally including dermoscopy. Identification of suspicious skin lesions in primary care are typically followed by an urgent referral, leading to a skin biopsy and histopathological examination, in suspicious cases.Whilst primary care clinicians are generally very accurate at identifying melanoma skin lesions that require intervention, only 3% of patients sent on the urgent referral pathway end up being diagnosed in secondary care with melanoma.This means that a large volume of patients is subjected to unnecessary invasive procedures (tissue biopsies) resulting in unnecessary morbidity.A technology that could help general practitioners (GPs) in primary care more effectively screen out patients who do not require dermatological assessment and biopsy would allow significant savings from the £35M currently spent on unnecessary diagnostic procedures every year for suspected skin cancer. Our solution is to (1) identify and validate, within skin interstitial fluid (IF), highly specific and highly sensitive molecular biomarkers for melanoma; (2) develop new technologies capable of detecting these new biomarkers that could be used by care providers to improve the quality of referral.We will be presenting how microneedle patches made of highly swellable, bespoke hydrogels can be engineered to diagnose melanoma with high sensitivity and specificity based on the detection of cancer-specific microRNA biomarkers, sampled near the suspicious lesion, where their concentration is the highest.We will be demonstrating how sampling IF proximal to the lesion presents a highly promising strategy to achieve greater levels of deregulation of tumour-specific biomarkers and detect, thus enabling easier and more accurate diagnosis with unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution. Dr Sylvain Ladame did his undergraduate studies in Chemistry at the University of Poitiers (19941997). He then went to carry out a PhD at the University of Toulouse (1997-2001). He then travelled to the University of Cambridge (UK) to work for five years (2001-2006) as a post-doctoral researcher in the group of Sir, Prof. Shankar Balasubramanian within the department of Chemistry. In 2006, he joined the CNRS as an Assistant Professor (Chargé de Recherche 1ère classe, CR1) in Strasbourg (France) and started his independent academic career as a junior group leader within the ‘Institut de Science et d’Ingénierie Supramoléculaires’ (ISIS). Four years later, in 2010, he moved back to the UK and became lecturer in the department of Bioengineering of Imperial College London (UK) where he is still currently working as a Reader in Biosensor Development. His research group is focusing on the design and development of molecular probes and devices for the detection of circulating cell-free nucleic acid biomarkers in liquid biopsies.Working in close collaboration with clinicians, Dr Ladame has a strong interest in translational research (early cancer diagnosis and prenatal testing) and has recently focused his research on the development of novel technologies that can be easily implemented in clinic to maximise impact on patients.
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