Dr. Michael R. King
The ScienceDaily article Cancer-killing Invention Also Harvests Stem Cells said
Associate Professor Michael King of the University of Rochester Biomedical Engineering Department has invented a device that filters the blood for cancer and stem cells. When he captures cancer cells, he kills them. When he captures stem cells, he harvests them for later use in tissue engineering, bone marrow transplants, and other applications that treat human disease and improve health.
A possible way to use the cancer-killing invention is to implant the device in the body before primary tumor surgery or chemotherapy. When doctors remove a primary tumor, the procedure itself can release cancer cells into the bloodstream. King’s device would grab those cancer cells and kill them, greatly reducing the possibility of metastasis.
Associate Professor King envisions that the device would use a shunt similar to the type used in hospitals today. This shunt would reside on the exterior of the arm or be implanted beneath the skin. Some of the blood flow would bypass the capillary bed and instead go into the shunt, which could remain implanted for many weeks, continually removing and killing cancer cells. King’s first targets are colorectal cancer and blood malignancies such as leukemia.
Michael R. King, Ph.D. is
Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University
of Rochester.
Mike’s primary research interest involves the study of adhesive
interactions of flowing cells with reactive surfaces. Such phenomena
are important in leukocyte recruitment during inflammation, platelet
deposition during thrombosis and hemostasis, and engraftment of
transplanted stem cells and circulating cancer cells.
Most adhesive
interactions of blood cells are mediated by cell surface receptors that
recognize specific counter-receptors on the blood vessel wall or on
other circulating cells. These adhesion receptors can have rapid,
force-dependent binding kinetics, causing stochastic transitions
between free stream flow, transient “rolling” adhesion, and firm
arrest. Several temporally-varying physical parameters combine to
control the state of cell adhesion under flow, such as the site density
and spatial distribution of receptor molecules, the level of cell
activation, and the local fluid flow environment.
These
mechanisms
combine in a complex and nonlinear manner, making a complete
theoretical model necessary for accurate prediction of cell behavior.
Over the past five years, his laboratory has used a combination of
state-of-the-art numerical simulations, in vitro flow chamber
experiments with human cells, and collaborative animal experiments to
elucidate the dynamics of multicellular adhesion phenomena. He has
been able to exploit this knowledge of physiological blood cell
trafficking to develop new applications for the manipulation and
isolation of rare populations of cells, and has begun to commercialize
a range of products for research and clinical use through a joint
startup venture between the University of Rochester and the private
company Biomed Solutions, LLC. Future work by his laboratory is focused
in three key areas:
- Multiscale computational modeling of platelet adhesion under flow
- Experimental and computational study of the basic physical mechanisms of neutrophil recruitment in inflammation
- Development of implantable stem cell and cancer therapy devices, and in vitro purification technologies for stem cell populations
He is on the Editorial Boards of Research & Reviews in BioSciences, Open Nanoscience Journal, Open Nanoscience Reviews, Open Biomedical Engineering Journal, Open Biomedical Engineering Reviews, and Open Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine Journal.
Mike earned his BS (Magna Cum Laude) in Chemical Engineering at the University of Rochester in 1995 and his PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame in 1999.
Read his LinkedIn profile.
