Keynote speakers

Title of your presentation:

Circulating Tumor Cell Capture, Interrogation, Imaging, Automated Analysis and Culture: New Tools and Biologic Insights

Summary:

Circulating tumor cells (CTC) and Disseminated Tumor Cells (DTC) are important clinical biomarkers for cancer diagnosis, prognosis and target identification. A number of features of CTC and DTC that appear to have biologic significance have been described, including epithelial morphology, clustering/aggregates and quantification. We showed that DTC are enriched for the cancer stem cell phenotype, indicating that these cells are indeed the precursors to overt metastasis. Recently, we have described the presence of circulating Cancer Associated Fibroblasts (cCAF), alone and in clusters with CTC. cCAF appear to be important in cancer progression, and may form the “soil” that is carried from the primary to metastatic sites that allow the CTC “seeds” to proliferate. Our recent findings indicate that cCAFs also have distinct biologic potential to act as appropriate substrates for metastatic growth.

The analysis of CTC remains challenging due to the rarity of the cells (even using the most highly enriching platforms) and the heterogeneity of phenotype and epithelial marker status. Our group has made significant advances in CTC capture methods, providing the most efficient and enriching capture platform so far described. We have developed novel imaging systems that allow for the rapid acquisition of high-quality images, and we are working to apply Artificial Intelligence/Deep Learning to these images. We will discuss integrated platforms for capture and novel imaging of CTC/cCAF and efforts to automate the analysis of CTC/cCAF images. Our group has also developed highly efficient live CTC capture platforms, and we are now engineering specific microenvironments which could lead to expansion, propagation, and creation of an important new biospecimen for cancer discovery.

Short biography:

Richard J. Cote, M.D., FRCPath, FCAP is Chair and Professor of the Department of Pathology and Immunology at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine. Prior to this he was the Joseph R. Coulter Jr. Chair of the Department of Pathology, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Founding Director of the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Biomedical Nanotechnology Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is a board-certified Pathologist, serving over 25 years in senior academic, consultative, and director/clinical roles with leading universities, hospitals and healthcare enterprises.

Dr. Cote obtained degrees in chemistry and biology at the University of California at Irvine and received his medical degree from the University of Chicago – Pritzker School of Medicine. He completed his residency at New York Hospital – Cornell University Medical College. His training included a clinical fellowship in pathology at Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center, a research fellowship in Human Tumor Immunology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a fellowship in Molecular Pathology at New York University School of Medicine. Prior to 2009, he was Professor, Departments of Pathology and Urology; Director, Genitourinary Cancer Program; Director, Laboratory of Immunology and Molecular Pathology; and Director of the USC Biomedical Nanoscience Initiative at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. As Chair of Pathology at the University of Miami, Dr. Cote led a transformation of the department that resulted in an increase in revenues of over 400%, an improvement in NIH funding ranking of nearly 60 positions, and an improvement in outcomes for the training (residency) program. Under his leadership, the department was ompletely reorganized to deliver sub-specialty care, the infrastructure was built to serve the entire health system, totaling in all 6 hospitals and multiple outpatient sites. Under Dr. Cote’s leadership, the department consolidated operations across the systems, creating economies of scale that resulted in millions of dollars in savings to the health system. At Washington University, he has lead the transition to subspecialty care, and is recruiting some of the leading scientists and pathologists in the country.

Dr. Cote’s research is focused on the elucidation of cellular and molecular pathways of tumor progression and response to therapy. He has special interests in micrometastases and circulating tumor cell (CTC) detection and characterization, the pathology of breast and genitourinary tumors and technology development. Most recently, he and his colleagues at the University of Miami, USC, Caltech, and UC Berkeley developed nanoscale technologies for cancer diagnostic applications, including bionanosensors for the detection of serum tumor markers, and technologies for the capture, characterization and propagation of CTC. As a result of these efforts, he established the Biomedical Nanoscience Program at USC and the Dr. John T. Macdonald Biomedical Nanotechnology Institute at the University of Miami (BioNIUM, for which Cote procured a $7.5 million naming gift), for the development of novel diagnostic platforms and targeted therapeutics. He is the recipient of over $190 million in research support, including nearly $43 million as principal investigator (primarily from NIH), and holds numerous patents for cancer related and nanoscale technologies. He has led three of the largest clinical trials in breast, lung and bladder cancer, which were based on discoveries from his research. He is the author of over 300 publications, including several standard textbooks, and participates on numerous scientific advisory boards for academia and industry.

Dr. Cote is a frequent lecturer and serves as a member and advisor to many national and international organizations, including the NCI. He is listed in “US News and World Report Top 1% of Doctors”, “Best Doctors in America”, “America’s Top Doctors”, “America’s Best in Medicine”, “Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement Award”, “Newsweek Health: Top Cancer Doctors”, and “South Florida Super Doctors”. He was awarded the 2013 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year by the School of Physical Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, was elected to the Association of American Physicians in 2010, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Societies. Recently he was awarded the Miami Chamber of Commerce Bio-Medical Healthcare Heroes Award (2015) and Society for Personalized Nano-Medicine Excellence Service Award (2016).

Dr. Cote is the founder of several technology-based companies, including Impath, Inc., Clarient, Filtini and Sensitini. Impath, one of the first companies to bring esoteric testing for cancer analysis to the market, was founded in 1988 and underwent an IPO in 1996. It achieved a market cap of $1B, and was acquired by Genzyme in 2004. Dr. Cote help to start an image analysis company, Chromavision, and in 2003 directed a re-engineering of the company and name change to Clarient, which brought high tech diagnostic capabilities to practicing pathologists and oncologists. After a successful expansion, Clarient, a publically traded company, was acquired by GE in 2009. Dr Cote has been an advisor to numerous biotech and biopharmaceutical companies, including Genentech, Roche, Lilly, Neoprobe, Johnson and Johnson Ortho Pharmaceuticals, and Abbott/Vysis.