Clinical Precision Medicine Based on Single Cell Analysis

Molecular profiling of cancer (MPC) is an interdisciplinary,state-of-the-art form of precision medicine (PM) that has produced considerable advances in the ability to treat patients with a variety of cancers. MPC enables personalization of treatment through the selection of effective targeted therapies and avoidance of unnecessary chemotherapy. These qualities minimize chemo-related adverse effects, increase quality of life, and reduce the length of hospitalizations and costs of patient care. Because the science of MPC is relatively new, the majority of possible MPC tests (covering the entire spectrum of diseases and treatments) are yet to be discovered, offering immense opportunities for research and care improvements using MPC. The current state of the art in MPC-based PM has hit a performance ceiling that still places an unacceptable number of patients in a “grey zone” of indeterminate biologic/outcome stratification which precludes selection of optimal treatment plans for these patients. Our Grand Challenge is to build on a foundation of prior accomplishments by our team, (including the creation of the only precision test for ovarian cancer treatment in existence that is accurate enough to be clinically actionable), leveraging the UMN scientific environment, as well as a network of external scientists with who we have a track record of productive collaboration, to develop a leading-edge PM program focused on single cell analytics. This program will enable the scalable creation of optimal therapy selection tests, with an accuracy that vastly exceeds the presentgeneration of such tests, thus conferring the advantagesofPM to patients thatcurrently cannotbe helpedbyconventional MPCtests. The overall drivingtheme ofthe projec'sobjectives is asignifiant improvementin outcomes ofcancerpatientsvia transformativeadvancesin the way personalizedmolecular profiles arecreated.