Saliva Diagnostics and Liquid biopsy: realizing precision medicine in chronic disease and cancer management - Professor Chamindie Punyadeera

Abstract

Precision medicine is revolutionizing cancer diagnosis and treatment. Saliva diagnostics, spotlighted during the Covid-19 pandemic, due to its non-invasive nature and the ability to collect multiple samples even from people living in rural and remote communities. Liquid biopsies provide comprehensive insights into primary and metastatic tumors, aiding personalized medicine. As an example, lung cancer patients with activating EGFR gene mutations detected in circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) from blood samples receive tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Our laboratory has pioneered saliva-based detection of cancer and chronic diseases using proteins, virus and miRNA as biomarkers. We have developed liquid biopsy assays from concept to commercialization, utilizing circulating tumor cells (CTCs), ctDNA, and exosomes from blood and saliva as diagnostic and prognostic tools for head and neck cancers (HNCs), lung cancers (NSCLC), and glioblastoma (GBM).  In this seminar, I will present data from our recent clinical studies. We have shown that saliva can facilitate early detection of HNC. Baseline CTC numbers can predict treatment response in HNC patients. Combining CTC counts and cfDNA levels improves progression-free survival (PFS) prediction in NSCLC patients. High levels of salivary exosome protein, ALDOA, correlate with poor outcomes in GBM patients.

Bio

Professor Chamindie Punyadeera is an inventor, a fellow to the Australian Academy for Science, Technology and Engineering (ATSE). She is an ambassador to women in STEMM. She has had a hybrid research career working in industry as well as in academia. She heads the saliva and liquid biopsy translational laboratory at Griffith University in Brisbane. Chamindie’ s laboratory develops biomarkers from concept through to commercialisation. She has made groundbreaking discoveries that has led to the world-first detection of an occult HPV driven oropharyngeal cancer in a healthy person, laying the foundation for a screening trial. Her research into saliva-based test to early diagnose and predict head and neck cancer, received FDA approval under breakthrough device designation for her industry partner in 2021. In addition, her laboratory develops and applies liquid biopsy-based technologies to early detect and predict outcomes in head and neck cancer, lung cancer and glioblastoma. She has authored >147 research papers including Nature Materials, Clin Chem, 8 book chapters, 20 PCT, including one granted patent. She currently receives research grant funding from ARC, NHMRC, Garnett Passe and Rodney Williams Foundation, NIH and Cancer Australia and industry. She is a grant reviewer for both national and international funding agencies and currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Oral Oncology, associate editor BMC Genomics and a guest editor to BMC Medical Genomics, Diagnostics and Biomolecules.