'Sister Cell' Profiling Aims To Shut Down Cancer Metastasis, University of Michigan Study

In work that could improve understanding of how cancer spreads, a team of engineers and medical researchers at the University of Michigan developed a new kind of microfluidic chip that can capture rare, aggressive cancer cells, grow them on the chip and release single cells on demand.

For the first time, they can easily compare two different "sister" cells—born of the same original cancer cell—to explore how different genes are activated and deactivated as cancer cells divide and spread. Studies with the new chip could also reveal why some cancer cells are resistant to drugs.

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