The Willmore lab has received the 2016 Research Achievement Award (RAA) from Carleton University for a project entitled “Development of a BioSensor for the detection of metastasized and circulating breast cancer cells”. The project is in collaboration with Drs. Jacques Albert (Electronics Engineering, Carleton), Maria DeRosa (Chemistry, Carleton) and Chris Harder (Spartan Bioscience, Ottawa). The research aims to develop innovative methods of detecting metastasized tumor cells in cancer patients utilizing DNA aptamers made against breast cancer cell markers (surface proteins) and fibre optic photonics. Cancer metastasis is a complex series of steps in which cancer cells detach from the original tumor site and migrate to other parts of the body, via the bloodstream or the lymphatic system, to initiate secondary tumors. These detached tumor cells are known as circulating tumor cells (CTCs). The formation of secondary or metastatic tumors is the major cause of death in cancer patients. The current method of detection of cancer metastasis is known as the sentinel lymph node (SLN) procedure in which the lymph nodes closest to the primary tumor are identified by the use of blue dye and/or radioactivity which is injected near the primary tumor and are then surgically removed for histological examination. If CTCs are detected, then further surgical removal of secondary lymph nodes and examination is required. Overall the SLN procedure is highly invasive and traumatizing to cancer patients, has a high occurrence of false negative results and has the risk of the development of lymphedema. Cancer patients require a less invasive, less risky and more accurate method of detecting CTCs within the circulation. The RAA will be part of an ongoing project to develop a medical device to measure CTCs in the blood or lymph of cancer patients. The RAA will be utilized for the Research Assistantship of a graduate student involved in this project.