Project Overview

Our client, Dr. Tod Speer, is an adjunct professor in the Physics Department and also part of the Department of Human Oncology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Speer’s research focuses on developing patient-specific cancer treatments using aptamers. This research aims to identify aptamers that will bind with high affinity to cells in patient tissue biopsies of pancreatic, triple-negative breast, prostate, and glioblastoma cancers using the Cell-SELEX method. Dr. Speer’s ultimate aim is to radio-label the aptamers and use particulate ionization radiation to destroy cancerous cells and tissue. The current Cell-SELEX method does not allow for exposure of the full aptamer library to the target cells, because of size constraints within a petri dish. While current Cell-SELEX protocols use about 10 nmoles of aptamers as the initial aptamer library, Dr. Speer has asked the team to create a cell culture system that accommodates an aptamer library of at least 250 nmoles [7]. The system must allow 250 nmoles of aptamers to continuously perfuse around a culture of at least one million adherent cancer cells in order to utilize the full library of aptamers. The device must be safe for researchers to use, and the cells must be accessible to the researcher at any time. Additionally, the device must be created within a $500 budget.

Team Picture

Contact Information

Team Members

• Brittany Russell - Team Leader
• Laura Guerrero - Communicator & BSAC
• Anna Keller - BWIG
• Samuel Moss - BPAG

Advisor and Client

• Prof. Tracy Jane Puccinelli - Advisor
• Dr. Tod Speer - Client

Related Projects

• Spring 2020: Aptamer perfusion of cancer cells
• Fall 2019: Aptamer perfusion of cancer cells
• Fall 2018: Aptamer perfusion of cancer cells