Researcher couple identifies most dangerous cancer cells

Not all cancer cells are equal. Tumour recurrence often depends on a few active cells. Researchers Miao-Ping Chien and Daan Brinks can recognise and target those cells.

Chien and Brinks are role models for the Convergence collaboration between the Delft University of Technology and the Erasmus Medical Centre. In Convergence, researchers work on the simultaneous development of technology and healthcare. She (Dr Miao-Ping Chien) has a broad background in the biology of cancer cells, biochemistry and biophysics. He (Dr Daan Brinks) adds a combination of neuroscience and physics. They both followed an intensive training in multidisciplinary work at Harvard University, where they met each other and where they stayed until 2017. Then they moved together to the Netherlands, each setting up their own lab: the MP Chien Lab at the Erasmus MC and the Brinks Lab at TU Delft.

Their multidisciplinary approach, and the work of more than 30 staff and students, has since led to a miraculously advanced microscope that can pick out a few of the most active cells from a sample of 20,000 to 30,000. They recently published about it in Nature Biomedical Engineering (17 March 2022), are offering the technology to practitioners at Erasmus MC, and are working on a spin-off under the name UFO Biosciences.