Mengjia Hu

Mengjia Hu is a Research Associate in the Liquid Biopsy Core (LBC) at University of Kansas Medical Center. She holds a BS in Chemistry from Wuhan University and a PhD in Chemistry from University of Arkansas. Her current research interests focus on the isolation of a variety of circulating biomarkers (i.e., Liquid Biopsy Markers, including rare biological cells, extracellular vesicles and cell free DNA) with high efficiency and their downstream analysis for basic biology and clinical projects using microfluidic technology with automated sample processing.

Isolation and downstream molecular analysis of the low abundant circulating markers (i.e., Liquid Biopsy Markers, including rare biological cells, extracellular vesicles (EVs) and cell free DNA) and their associated molecular cargo provide important information on disease diagnosis, disease evolution, monitoring disease response to treatment, monitoring minimal residual disease (MRD), etc. Microfluidic devices designed for affinity isolation of rare cells (circulating tumor cells, CTCs or circulating leukemia cells, CLCs), EVs and isolation of cell free DNA have been developed to enrich these markers from biological fluids including whole blood (CTCs and CLCs isolation), serum, plasma, urine and saliva samples. With our automated robotic sample processing platform, high throughput and reproducible isolation can be achieved.

Application of the circulating markers isolation method has been evaluated with various diseases. CTCs isolated from patient whole blood sample was used as prognostic markers in solid tumor cancer studies such as pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), colorectal and appendiceal cancers, and Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs). CLCs and CPCs isolation from patients with B/T-Cell Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and plasma cell disorders have also been evaluated for MRD monitoring. The isolated cells were used for CTCs/CLCs enumeration, immunophenotyping, DNA and RNA sequencing and other molecular analysis to provide information of the disease and can be used for longitudinal study of the patient responses to treatment. EVs isolated from breast cancer patients have been used for EV-mRNA analysis to provide molecular information for prognostication and assessed for its potential for breast cancer subtyping. Isolation of brain-derived exosomes as blood marker of HIV cognitive impairment, EVs isolation from COVID-19 patients plasma for study of pulmonary vascular injury and EVs isolation from serum and urine sample from bladder cancer patients have also been evaluated for application of EV-protein analysis.