Jasmine Zhou improves non-invasive cancer screening
March 14, 2019
UCLA research team led by Dr. Xianghong Jasmine Zhou, Dr. Steven-Huy Han, and Dr. Samuel French were awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health for $3.5 million to research an effective, noninvasive, and affordable cancer screening test able to detect liver cancer earlier.
The grant will continue to help fund projects such as the CancerLocator and the CancerDetector, which will use DNA methylation signatures to detect cancerous cells in the blood from a liquid biopsy.
The goal is to be able to perfect the method and eventually be able to utilize DNA methylation signatures in cancer detection to make the process less invasive, cheaper, and earlier detection. Liver cancer is their focus right now but they hope to expand to other types and eventually be able to use it in identifying and locating cancerous tissues and tumors.
