Jane Ru Choi

Dr. Jane Ru Choi received her Bachelor’s degree (Hons) in Biomedical Science from the National University of Malaysia and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Malaya. She is presently a post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Choi’s research integrates cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, analytical chemistry and engineering approaches to develop a technology to rapidly isolate single cells. Genome sequencing of individual circulating tumour cells (CTCs) would be of great use to evaluate cancer status and treatment efficacy, and to identify potential mutations and cancer subtypes within a heterogeneous tumour. However, the task has remained challenging due to the extreme rarity of CTCs. The general approach of Choi’s study is to develop a method that can efficiently capture such rare cells for downstream single cell sequencing. The improved method could rapidly select single CTCs or other types of cells based on their phenotypic profile while eliminating cell loss. This technology would enable better cancer monitoring and guide personalized therapy.

An up-to-date list of publications by Dr. Choi is available here.