HP Innovation Journal Issue 14: Spring 2020 | Page 63

HP’s decades
of expertise in
inkjets has led to
breakthroughs
in the field of
microfluidics,
spurring new
techniques that can
identify circulating
tumor cells in blood
samples without
invasive biopsies.
At HP’s Print Adjacencies and Microfluidics Lab, a team
led by chief researcher Viktor Shkolnikov is working on
a solution that will help solve the challenging problem of
manipulating individual cells, using technology based on
HP’s decades of expertise in inkjets, which precisely control
fluid flow and electric field, temperature, and pressure.
“You’re trying to identify and isolate 10 cancer cells out
of a billion other cells in the blood based on specific
properties the cancer cells share,” says Shkolnikov.
This technology will become critical for personalized
therapy and detecting if there are cancer cells post-
treatment through so-called liquid biopsies, which can
identify circulating tumor cells in blood samples instead of
tissue removed via invasive biopsies.
Shkolnikov expects the first commercial version to be
available in the next few years, primarily for use by
researchers and pharmaceutical companies conducting
clinical trials of new drugs. “They’ll be able to grab cells
after a drug is administered and see what the molecule
is doing to them,” he says. “There’s no other way of
attaining that information, that frequently, through
traditional methods.”
Within the decade, he says, microfluidic diagnostics will
make their way into the clinic, offering more targeted
detection and eliminating the risk of complications
that arise in about 20% of biopsies conducted today.
Microfluidic instruments will also let doctors assess
how effective a treatment is through ongoing monitoring
via simple blood draws and regular, more accurate
surveillance once a patient achieves remission.
Taken together, advances in AI, VR, precision medicine,
microfluidics, and other lines of inquiry provide hope for
earlier detection, more effective treatment, and lasting
remission. For an increasing number of cancer patients,
the future is filled with stories of survival like mine.
“The potential of these technologies isn’t sci-fi anymore,”
says Mahoney. “More resources are being poured into devel-
opment while more incredible things are coming out of it.”
This article originally appeared on the Garage by HP.
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