Erica D. Pratt

Ph.D. Student
Biomedical Engineering

Erica currently works on developing and using microfluidic devices to isolate circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from whole blood. Specifically, Erica's interests lie in determining the biological determinants of cancer metastisis and chemotherapeutic efficacy through microfluidic capture of CTCs.

Biography

Erica Pratt joined the Micro/Nanofluidics Laboratory in June of 2008. She completed her undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering with a double major in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Her previous research includes modeling of epitaxial crystal growth and studying mechanotransduction in cells.

Current Projects

Current projects include the microfabrication and of CTC capture devices and analysis of cells captured within these devices.
 

Honors and Awards

- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, Awarded 2009
- Sloan Minority PhD Fellowship, Awarded 2008

- Best Poster Award, CNF Annual Meeting (2010)
- Poster Award: 2nd Place, Sibley Graduate Research Conference (2010)
- Poster Award: 3rd Place, Cornell BMES Retreat (2008)

- DPE Travel Grant (2010)

Education

- B.S. 2008 Carnegie Mellon University, Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering
 

Publications

ED Pratt*, C Huang*, BG Hawkins, JP Gleghorn, BJ Kirby
"Rare cell capture in microfludic devices" Chemical Engineering Science, accepted 2010.*Both authors contributed equally to this work

JP Gleghorn, ED Pratt, D Denning, H Liu, NH Bander, ST Tagawa, DM Nanus, PA Giannakakou, BJ Kirby
"Capture of Circulating Tumor Cells from Whole Blood of Prostate Cancer Patients Using Geometrically Enhanced Differential Immunocapture (GEDI) and a Prostate-Specific Antibody" Lab on a Chip 10(1):27-9, 2010
 

Reviewed Conference Presentations

JP Gleghorn, SM Santana, ED Pratt, MS Loftus, M Jodari-Karimi, NH Bander, DM Nanus, PA Giannakakou, BJ Kirby* 
"Cancer cell assays by use of immunocapture, subcellular imaging, and cell release in GEDI microdevices" BMES 2010

JP Gleghorn, SM Santana, ED Pratt, MS Loftus, M Jodari-Karimi, NH Bander, DM Nanus, PA Giannakakou, BJ Kirby* 
"Cancer cell assays by use of immunocapture, subcellular imaging, and cell release in GEDI microdevices" MicroTAS 2010

ED Pratt, JP Gleghorn, SM Santana, MS Loftus, M Karimi-Jodari, NH Bander, DM Nanus, PA Giannakakou, BJ Kirby
"Cancer cell assays by use of immunocapture, subcellular imaging, and cell release in GEDI microdevices" Gordon Research Conference on Bioanalytical Sensors, 2010

MS Loftus, JP Gleghorn, ED Pratt, NH Bander, DM Nanus, BJ Kirby, PA Giannakakou
"Analysis of circulating tumor cells from castrate resistant prostate cancer patients captured via a microfluidic device using an anti-PSMA antibody" American Association of Cancer Researchers 2010  

JP Gleghorn, ED Pratt, MS Loftus, BE Levy, NH Bander, DM Nanus, PA Giannakakou, BJ Kirby*
"High Efficiency Capture of Circulating Tumor Cells from Patient Blood Using Geometrically Enhanced Differential Immunocapture" MicroTAS 2009

WC Ruder, ED Pratt, T Cassino, J Huard, JF Antaki, PR LeDuc
"Examining Links between Oscillatory Calcium Signal Transduction and Stem Cell Phenotype" BMES Annual Meeting 2008.

WC Ruder, ED Pratt, NB Brandy, DA LaVan, PR LeDuc, JF Antaki
"Investigation Of Calcium Mechanotransduction By Quasi 3-D Microfiber
Mechanical Stimulation of Cells" ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference 2008

WC Ruder, ED Pratt, NB Brandy, DA LaVan, PR LeDuc, JF Antaki
"Multimodal Perturbation of Intracellular Ca2+ using Dorsal Cell Adhesion" 52nd Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society and 16th IUPAB International Biophysics Congress 2008

WC Ruder, ED Pratt, NB Brandy, DA LaVan, PR LeDuc, JF Antaki
"Probing Intracellular Ca2+ Signaling through Mechanical Stimulation of Focal Adhesion Complexes" BMES Annual Meeting 2007

WC Ruder, ED Pratt, NB Brandy, DA LaVan, PR LeDuc, JF Antaki
"Stretch-Activated Calcium Signal Propagation Following Mechanical Stimulation of Focal Adhesions" ASME Bioengineering 2007

I Cohen, M Buckley, S Gerbode, E Pratt, J Keeling
"Epitaxial Growth of Thin Colloidal Films in Presence of Depletant" APS March Meeting 2007

* Podium Presentation

Other Presentations

ED Pratt, JP Gleghorn, SM Sanana, MS Loftus, NH Bander, DM Nanus, PA Giannakakou, BJ Kirby*
"Capture of prostate circulating tumor cells from whole blood using geometrically-enhanced differential immunocapture (GEDI)" Cornell Engineering Research Conference, 2010

ED Pratt, JP Gleghorn, SM Santana, J Smith, M Bono, NH Bander, DM Nanus, PA Giannakakou, BJ Kirby
"High Efficiency Capture of Prostate CTCs using Geometrically Enhanced Differential Immunocapture" Sibley Graduate Research Conference 2010

ED Pratt, JP Gleghorn,  Y Hi, MS Darshan, BE Levy, NH Bander, DM Nanus, PA Giannakakou, BJ Kirby
"Microfluidic Device for the Immuno-Capture of Circulating Prostate Tumor Cells" Innovations in Nanotechnology for Cancer Research Symposium 2008

ED Pratt, JP Gleghorn,  Y Hi, MS Darshan, BE Levy, NH Bander, DM Nanus, PA Giannakakou, BJ Kirby
"Design of a Microfluidic Device for the Capture of Circulating Prostate Tumor Cells" Cornell BMES Retreat 2008

E Pratt, S Gerbode, J Keeling, I Cohen*
"Effects of Disorder on Template-Directed Colloidal Crystalization"New York Complex Matter Workshop 2006