The next generation of liquid biopsies: Predictive and pharmacologic biomarkers

Project Summary: The laboratory of Dr. Joshua Lang is focused on targeting treatment resistant PCa through developing new biomarkers for precision medical strategies using liquid biopsies; discovering novel vulnerabilities in PCa; and translating these discoveries and biomarkers into clinical trials. Dr. Jamie Sperger has been an integral part of Dr. Lang’s laboratory for the past 11 years and has contributed to 3 NCI funded RO1 projects and co-authored 24 publications. Together, Drs. Lang and Sperger have developed novel liquid biopsy assays which helped identify persistent Androgen Receptor (AR) signaling in men treated with AR signaling inhibitors (ARSIs) due to complex genomic alterations, including AR gene rearrangements, amplifications, and mutations that can be detected in liquid biopsies. Currently Dr. Sperger leads two NCI funded projects in the Lang laboratory. The first project “Molecular regulation of Trop-2 in advanced prostate cancer: Biomarkers and therapeutic niches” (R01CA276269) aims to leverage liquid biopsies as a tool to better understand which patients might benefit from Trop-2 targeted therapies. The second project titled “Enhancing epigenetic analysis of rare cells with multi-phase microfluidics” aims to develop novel methods to detect epigenetic changes by developing new methods using technology co-developed with the laboratory of Dr. David Beebe. Dr. Sperger is uniquely qualified to lead these projects, with over a decade of experience with assay development for liquid biopsies using microfluidics.