Main Host Institution: Institution: Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon – Portugal

Host Lab: Costa-Silva Lab (Systems Oncology)

Project Title: Implementation of exosome-based liquid biopsy as a non-invasive method for early diagnosis, prognosis and follow-up of patients with NSCLC, as well as other cancer types.

Project Background: The aim of the European Liquid Biopsy Academy (ELBA) is to develop a blood-based assay for diagnosis and simultaneous selection of the treatment for NSCLC patients. The project will focus on comparison and integration of several liquid biopsy biosources, including circulating tumor cells (CTC), extracellular vesicles (EV), tumor-educated platelets (TEPs), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). My role as ELBA Early Stage Researcher 3 (ESR3) will be the comprehensive characterization of nucleic acid composition in circulating exosomes in blood of NSCLC patients.

Project Aim:

• Optimization of sample processing for exosome recovery from blood plasma and/or serum.
• Development of exosome isolation methods for optimal exosome-derived DNA/RNA yield.
• Identification of biomarker DNA and RNA transcripts in NSCLC-derived exosomes by NGS for computational analysis.