EMBL Course: Liquid Biopsies

Liquid biopsies have the advantage of being largely non-invasive and providing a vast amount of information for the detection and monitoring of diseases such as cancer. This course will provide hands-on experience in the several techniques to detect and analyse circulating tumor cells (CTCs), cell free tumor DNA (ctDNA) and proteins. Participants will have the opportunity to learn all aspects ranging from proper sampling through error free sequencing to data analysis. Lectures will also cover extracellular vesicles and clinical aspects using liquid biopsies, especially in the field of cancer diagnostics.

Topics: Hands-on experience on ultra-sensitive mutation detection using sequencing, Applications of digital PCR to the liquid biopsy workflow, Protein analysis in liquid biopsis, Data analysis and interpretations