Site-specific antibody modification and immobilization on a microfluidic chip to promote the capture of circulating tumor cells and microemboli.

We design and synthesize EpCAM antibodies with Fc-domain site-specific linkers that allow preferential alignment when coated on microfluidic devices for capturing circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from colorectal cancer patients. The aligned coating is shown to increase the capture efficiency of CTCs and microemboli by 1.6 and 3.0-fold, respectively (both P < 0.05).