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Blood Platelets Capture Tumor DNA and Fetal DNA — Boosting Early Cancer Detection and Prenatal Screening
Lauren Murphy/Linkedin
Aug 15, 2025, 23:27

Blood Platelets Capture Tumor DNA and Fetal DNA — Boosting Early Cancer Detection and Prenatal Screening

Lauren Murphy, postdoctoral Scientist at the University of Oxford, recently shared a post on Linkedin:

“New paper alert! Thrilled and proud to share that our latest work has just been published in Science Magazine!

We reveal a new function for blood platelets – acting as ‘sponges’ for DNA in plasma.

They capture fragments released from tumors and other tissues – a source of information that could be crucial for cancer detection and prenatal screening.

Our work shows that standard liquid biopsy approaches, which focus on cell-free DNA from platelet-depleted plasma, may be missing this rich source. Including platelet DNA could boost sensitivity, especially in early disease!

Huge thanks to my PhD supervisors Beth Psaila, Simon Leedham and Adam Mead.

This project was a true team effort and would not have been possible without so many incredible colleagues: Jeanne Inchauspé, Giampiero Valenzano, Chris Gregory, Pamella Holland, Paul Rees, Benjamin Schuster-Böckler, Eric O’Neill, Ian Hitchcock, Michael Desborough and Manu Vatish.

Above all, thank you to the patients who contributed samples and inspired this work.”

Read the full paper here.

You can watch a summary video here.

Article: Platelets sequester extracellular DNA, capturing tumor-derived and free fetal DNA

Authors: Lauren Murphy, Jeanne Inchauspé, Giampiero Valenzano, Pamela Holland, Nikolaos Sousos, Hayley L. Belnoue-Davis, Rong Li, Natalie J. Jooss, Camelia Benlabiod, Eleanor Murphy, Zohar Etzioni, Emelie Shepherd, Lucy Denly, Sujata Biswas, Lin Chen, Jennifer O’Sullivan, Michael P. Rimmer, Abdullah O. Khan, Christina Simoglou Karali, Nadia Nasreddin, Ian S. Hitchcock, Milka Koupenova, Skirmantas Kriaucionis, Jim R. Hughes, Eric O’Neill, Manu Vatish, Paul Rees, Simon Leedham, Michael Desborough, Adam J. Mead, Benjamin Schuster-Böckler, Christopher D. Gregory, Bethan Psaila

Blood Platelets Capture Tumor DNA and Fetal DNA — Boosting Early Cancer Detection and Prenatal Screening

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Abdullah O. Khan Adam J. Mead Benjamin Schuster-Böckler Bethan Psaila Camelia Benlabiod cancer detection Christina Simoglou Karali Christopher D. Gregory DNA Eleanor Murphy Emelie Shepherd Eric O’Neill Giampiero Valenzano Hayley L. Belnoue-Davis Health Hematology Hemostasis Hemostasis Today Ian S. Hitchcock Jeanne Inchauspé Jennifer O’Sullivan Jim R. Hughes Lauren Murphy Lin Chen Lucy Denly Manu Vatish Medicine Michael Desborough Michael P. Rimmer Milka Koupenova Nadia Nasreddin Natalie J. Jooss Nikolaos Sousos Pamela Holland Paul Rees platelets Rong Li Simon Leedham Skirmantas Kriaucionis Sujata Biswas University of Oxford Zohar Etzioni
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