Date of Award

3-26-2015

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Applied Science

First Advisor

Alexandru Biris

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancers in the United States. It is imperative that a quick and reliable method for the early detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) be identified and tested. In this research several new detection and imaging techniques based on using Raman spectroscopy have been invented. Raman active nano-complex agents based on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were prepared and used for the swift and specific detection of breast cancer cells. SWCNTs are functionalized with the anti-epithelial cell adhesion molecule (anti-EpCAM) antibody, were able to detect CTCs within 30 min and discriminate few CTCs among thousands of normal cells. Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) technique with multicolor spectroscopically active nanostructural systems based on gold nanorods (~12nn width, ~36nm long) silver coated (~1.7nm) have been used for detection of CTCs in blood samples. Nanostructural agents, formed of Ag decorated Au nanorods, were used with four Raman active labels, and each nanoparticle was conjugated with a specific breast cancer targeting molecule (anti-EpCAM, anti-IGFRβ,, anti-CD44, and anti-Cytokeratin18). A single breast cancer cell (MCF7) was detected in both separated and whole peripheral blood samples within 30 minutes incubation and 10 seconds Raman acquisition time.

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