Research Focus
Imagine, if we understood what the 30 trillions of cells in our body do at any given moment...
Now compare these 30 trillions of cells (not counting the microbiome!) to the earth population of 8B people (3,750 times more!). This creates a massive undertaking...
At CSB we develop innovative technologies to enable the discovery of new biology, drug targets and diagnostics.
Electrical engineering to boost electrochemiluminescence
Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) is a powerful biosensing method with inherently low background and precise chemical reactions through electrical control. In recent work published in Science Advances, CSB investigators extended ECL’s advantages by devising a new system termed ECLipse (ECL in paired signal electrode). The key innovation was to separate ECL generation from target detection: these two processes were carried out in isolated chambers and coupled through an electrode. With this strategy, the investigators could maximize the analytical signal without crosstalk and integrate multiple sensors in a compact chip. In a pilot clinical study, the ECLipse system accurately detected septic conditions by measuring host factors (IL-3, IL-6, PCT) and revealed distinct IL-3 and IL-6 patterns in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Learn more...
Visualizing living cells & tissues in many colors
Tracking the dynamic interactions of living cells and tissues is central to our understanding of biological function, yet hard to do, because microscopic molecular machinery is intrinsically difficult to visualize while in operation. We can observe living cells/tissues by labeling key molecules with distinct fluorescent colors, but usually just one or two at a time— akin to taking photographs of a brilliant garden, but only in black and white. Other existing technologies can map the intricate spatial distribution of biomolecules and cell types within tissues (i.e., seeing the garden in all its colors), but not in specimens that remain alive and intact. Therefore, a key goal has been to achieve many-colored longitudinal readouts of living systems. Publishing in Nature Biotechnology, a CSB team introduces scission-accelerated fluorophore exchange (SAFE): imaging tools that enable living cells and tissues to be deeply and serially profiled, revealing their many-colored complexity across both space and time. Learn more...
Liquid biopsy for pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancers are often hard to detect until it is too late. One of the reasons is that there are no sensitive or specific blood tests for early pancreatic cancer. Researchers from the Weissleder lab describe a new liquid biopsy method (sEVA) in Science Advances. The technique accurately tests for tumor shed vesicles by analyzing every vesicle in a blood sample. Preliminary feasibility studies showed that sEVA detected 15/16 stage 1 pancreatic cancer at MGH. The single vesicle detection method has the potential to transform early pancreatic cancer research and clinical practice. Learn more...