Course Overview
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 most common techniques to detect and analyse circulating tumor cells (CTCs), cell free tumor DNA (ctDNA) and/or extracellular vesicles (exosomes) while also bringing in clinical aspects. Participants will have the opportunity to learn all aspects ranging from proper sampling through error free sequencing to data analysis.
Audience
This course targets young scientists entering the field of liquid biopsies and wanting to learn about the benefits and limitations of the approach.
Modules/Resources
- Hands-on experience on ultra-sensitive mutation detection using sequencing
- Application of digital PCR to the liquid biopsy workflow
- PLA approach for liquid biopsies
- Data analysis
Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn about the complete workflow in liquid biopsies, from sample preparation to data analysis and gain an overview of the current methods. Best practices, pitfalls as well as do's and don'ts will be discussed. After the course, participants should be able to assess the best methods for their application as well as design their experiments.
