Stiefel, JanisJanisStiefelFreese, ChristianChristianFreeseSriram, AshwinAshwinSriramAlebrand, SabineSabineAlebrandSrinivas, Nalini KolarNalini KolarSrinivasSproll, ChristophChristophSprollWandrey, MaditaMaditaWandreyGül, DésiréeDésiréeGülHagemann, JanJanHagemannBecker, Jürgen C.Jürgen C.BeckerBaßler, MichaelMichaelBaßler2022-05-182022-05-182022-04-22https://publica.fraunhofer.de/handle/publica/41768810.1002/elsc.202100133Detailed examination of tumor components is leading-edge to establish personalized cancer therapy. Accompanying research on cell-free DNA, the cell count of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patient blood is seen as a crucial prognostic factor. The potential of CTC analysis is further not limited to the determination of the overall survival rate but sheds light on understanding inter- and intratumoral heterogeneity. In this regard, commercial CTC isolation devices combining an efficient enrichment of rare cells with a droplet deposition of single cells for downstream analysis are highly appreciated. The Liquid biopsy platform CTCelect was developed to realize a fully-automated enrichment and single cell dispensing of CTCs from whole blood without pre-processing.We characterized each process step with two different carcinoma cell lines demonstrating up to 87 % enrichment (n = 10) with EpCAMcoupled immunomagnetic beads, 73 % optical detection and dispensing efficiency (n = 5). 40 to 56.7 % of cells were recovered after complete isolation from 7.5 ml untreated whole blood (n = 6). In this study, CTCelect enabled automated dispensing of single circulating tumor.enjournal article