News/Updates

May 2020

R21 grant awarded to develop a tool to predict a patient’s risk of developing a metastatic brain tumor

An NIH grant has been awarded to the lab and Dr. Merajver’s lab to predict a patient risk of developing metastatic brain tumor. The Merajver lab and Oliver lab at the University of Michigan have been awarded an R21 grant by the National Institute of Health with the title “Artificial Intelligence driven prediction of brain metastasis from primary tumor sites at diagnosis”. The interdisciplinary team consists of Dr. Sofia Merajver, Dr. Ryan Oliver, Dr. Trisha Westerhof, Dr. Maria Castro, Dr. Aki Morikawa and Dr. Carlos Aguilar. The goal is to develop a technology that identifies patients at risk of developing […]

Promoted to faculty at the University of Michigan

Dr. Ryan Oliver has been promoted to a faculty member in the Internal Medicine Department at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In this position he will be developing a research program focused on the intersection of engineering (marco, micro, nano) and cancer research. Collaborations are welcome and can reach out at croliver@umich.edu.

April 2019

Best poster awarded at first BioInterfaces Institute Research Day.

The BioInterface Institute is home to a multi-disciplinary set of faculty and core facilities at the University of Michigan. We hosted our first annual research day to celebrate the fantastic research going on in the institute. It was a great honor to be selected as a recipient of the best poster award showcasing the work going on with the Takayama, Merajver and Aguilar groups here at the University. Congrats to tall the winners and a special thanks to the organizers, staff and faculty.

A temporary indwelling intravascular aphaeretic system for in vivo enrichment of circulating tumor cells

Tae Hyun Kim, Yang Wang, C. Ryan Oliver, Douglas H. Thamm, Laura Cooling, Costanza Paoletti, Kaylee J. Smith , Sunitha Nagrath & Daniel F. Hayes. AA temporary indwelling intravascular aphaeretic system for in vivo enrichment of circulating tumor cells. (2019) NATURE COMMUNICATIONS 2019. [DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09439-9]

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have become an established biomarker for prognosis in patients with various carcinomas. However, current ex vivo CTC isolation technologies rely on small blood volumes from a single venipuncture limiting the number of captured CTCs. This produces statistical variability and inaccurate reflection of tumor cell heterogeneity. Here, we […]

February 2019

A platform for artificial intelligence based identification of the extravasation potential of cancer cells into the brain metastatic niche

C. Ryan Oliver, Megan A. Altemus, Trisha M. Westerhof, Hannah Cheriyan, Xu Cheng, Michelle Dziubinski, Zhifen Wu, Joel Yates, Aki Morikawa, Jason Heth, Maria G. Castro, Brendan M. Leung, Shuichi Takayama, Sofia D. Merajver. A platform for artificial intelligence based identification of the extravasation potential of cancer cells into the brain metastatic niche. (2019) LAB ON A CHIP 2019. [DOI: 10.1039/C8LC01387J ]

Brain metastases are the most lethal complication of advanced cancer; therefore, it is critical to identify when a tumor has the potential to metastasize to the brain.  There are currently no interventions that shed light on the […]

April 2018

AACR 2018 discussion on brain metastasis phenotyping using a blood brain barrier on a chip

The University of Michigan released a discussion between the press staff and Dr. Oliver discussing the blood brain barrier on a chip device developed with Professors Merajver and Takayama. The potential of this platform may aid in precision phenotyping of cancer cells both prior and after diagnosis of brain metastasis enabling tailoring of the therapeutics and treatment given to a patient.

Dr. Oliver at AACR 2018.

Dr. Oliver interviewed by BCRF at AACR 2018

We attended AACR 2018 this year in Chicago and had the opportunity to present our work during the poster session. I presented the most recent results in the development of our blood brain barrier on a chip system that we are using to parenthetically characterize different cancer cells and measure their impact on the blood brain barrier.

During the session I was fortunate to get to share our work with one of our sponsers the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF).

https://www.bcrf.org/blog/aacr-2018-highlights-novel-approaches-treating-brain-metastasis-metastatic-breast-cancer

Dr. Oliver speaking at AACR 2018.

Organ-on-a-chip: Blood brain niche (um-BBN) microfluidic device and algorithms to aid diagnosis of brain metastatic potential of breast cancer

C. Ryan Oliver et al. 2018 Keystone Symposium Organ on a Chip.

We presented work continued work on the blood brain barrier platform but were fortunate to get to learn from other experts in organ-on-a-chip systems. It was an honor to get to discuss the field and develop a roadmap for integrating academia, regulation and industry into the planning process for organ-on-a-chip systems so that they can solve real world problems.

Special thanks to our sponsors BCRF and the National institute of health.

October 2017

Braint Mets Conference Presentation

I will be attending the Brain Mets 2017 Conference in Marseille, France October 6-7.  More information can be found at http://brain-mets.com/

If you are there I look forward to meeting you.  Abstract below:

Development of a blood brain niche microfluidic device and algorithms to aid diagnosis of brain metastatic potential

Brain metastasis is the most lethal complication from advanced cancer.  15% of breast cancers metastasize in the brain with a low one-year survival rate.  A critical step in reducing the lethality of brain metastasis is early detection of clones with high metastatic potential.  Models for characterizing metastatic potential include murine models and […]

June 2017

University of Michigan Cancer Center Symposium 2017

We will be presenting work about a blood brain niche on a chip that have developed to understand clonal variation in breast cancer cells that metastasis to the brain.  This is a great event to meet a variety of cancer researchers and understand how biology, materials and microfluidics can be leveraged to solve translational problems.

Metastasis from the primary tumor site to the brain is the most lethal complication of advanced cancer.  15% of breast cancers metastasize in the brain with a median survival of 5-14 months depending on the subtype.  Therefore, it is critical to identify when a tumor has […]