DrAli Salehi-Reyhani

Functional Liquid Biopsy

Liquid biopsy has transformed cancer diagnostics by making tumour-derived material accessible from a simple blood sample. However, most current technologies remain fundamentally descriptive, providing molecular snapshots while revealing little about how living tumour cells behave. We believe liquid biopsy should not simply detect tumour cells but enable functional measurements that reveal how they respond to therapy. Our laboratory develops microfluidic technologies capable of isolating viable circulating tumour cells (CTCs) without relying on molecular assumptions. By coupling these platforms with high-content imaging, single-cell metabolomics and quantitative mass spectrometry, we are developing new approaches to understand tumour evolution, therapeutic resistance and metastatic progression directly from patient-derived cells. Our recent microfluidic platforms have established new approaches for isolating viable circulating tumour cells for downstream functional analysis, positioning the group at the forefront of emerging efforts to move liquid biopsy from molecular detection towards functional precision oncology.

Our long-term vision is a new generation of functional liquid biopsies capable of informing precision oncology through direct measurements of cellular behaviour rather than static biomarkers alone.

Programmable Measurement Technologies for Microfluidics and Lab-on-a-Chip Systems

Scientific progress is frequently limited not by the questions we ask, but by the measurements we are able to make. We therefore develop analytical technologies that extend the boundaries of what can be measured, where measurements can be made and how those measurements can be used. Our research spans autonomous optical manipulation, portable analytical instrumentation, microfluidic systems and single-cell analysis. We are developing autonomous AI-guided systems capable of manipulating individual living cells with the same precision that genomics transformed molecular biology. By combining computer vision, reinforcement learning and optical tweezers, our MaGIC-OT platform transforms single-cell manipulation from a specialist manual technique into an autonomous experimental capability.

Similarly, we reimagined one of analytical chemistry’s most important technologies so that laboratory-grade chemical measurements can be performed wherever decisions need to be made. Our hand-portable liquid chromatography systems combine miniaturised separations with broadband spectral detection, enabling high-performance chemical analysis outside conventional laboratories and laying the foundations for future point-of-care biochemical diagnostics.

Our work on hand-portable liquid chromatography reimagined one of analytical chemistry’s most important technologies so that laboratory-grade chemical measurements can be performed wherever decisions need to be made. The platform has helped establish new directions in portable analytical instrumentation and has led to invited lectures, investigator awards and leadership roles within the analytical sciences community.

Across every platform, our ambition is not simply to improve existing technologies, but to create fundamentally new experimental capabilities that redefine how biological measurements can be performed.

Engineering Dynamic Biology

Cells constantly communicate through chemical, mechanical and metabolic signals that regulate development, immunity and disease. Conventional biological experiments often struggle to recreate these dynamic interactions. Our group develops programmable biological environments that allow signalling pathways to be manipulated with unprecedented precision. This includes synthetic molecular communication systems capable of processing chemical information without electronics, and light-activated semiconductor biointerfaces that deliver precisely controlled reactive oxygen species directly to living cells. These technologies enable causal studies of tumour–microenvironment interactions, immune signalling and therapeutic response, providing new opportunities to understand how dynamic biological systems behave in health and disease.