Using dog and human blood tests to improve early bone cancer detection
Official title: Cross-species transfer learning for liquid biopsy-based cancer detection
Funded at University of California at Davis · NIH-11355216 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project builds a blood test that uses patterns learned from dogs to help find osteosarcoma earlier in children and other patients.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R21 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of California at Davis NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Davis, United States) |
| Project start | May 4, 2026 |
| Project end | April 30, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $402,068 |
| NIH project number | 1R21CA313790-01 |
| Project ID | NIH-11355216 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are children and other patients with suspected or confirmed osteosarcoma, or people at high risk who can provide blood samples for testing.
✕Less likely to help
People without bone sarcoma or those unable or unwilling to give blood samples are unlikely to benefit from this approach.
What this research studies
If you took part, you would give a small blood sample that is scanned with Raman spectroscopy to capture molecular fingerprints. Researchers will train computer models on large collections of dog plasma samples and then fine-tune those models using smaller numbers of human samples, including pediatric samples. They will also run targeted lipid and metabolite tests to make sure the computer-based signals match real biological molecules. The process aims to create a noninvasive liquid biopsy that works across species to improve detection of bone sarcoma.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could allow earlier, less invasive detection of osteosarcoma, improving treatment options and outcomes for patients.
How similar studies have gone: Liquid biopsy and Raman spectroscopy have shown promise in cancer detection, but using large canine datasets and cross-species transfer learning to detect human osteosarcoma is a novel approach.
Where this research is happening
-
University of California at Davis
Davis, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Brostoff, Terza — University of California at Davis
- Study coordinator: Brostoff, Terza
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.