In the intricate battle against cancer—a disease that often strikes without warning—the greatest weapon may be one that is still unfamiliar to the public: early, precise detection through blood test, and often called liquid biopsy. At the heart of this innovation stands Dr Cha-Mei Tang, a physicist turned biotech entrepreneur whose groundbreaking work at Creatv Bio, a division of Creatv MicroTech, is helping to redefine the future of oncological diagnostics.
With scientific rigour and compassionate foresight, Dr. Tang has driven her company to the forefront of cancer detection. Creative Bio’s technology offers not just a scientific breakthrough but a clinical revolution—promising to change how cancer is diagnosed, monitored, and understood.
A Scientific Legacy: The Journey of Dr Cha-Mei Tang
Dr Cha-Mei Tang’s path to scientific distinction began at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she earned her bachelor, masters and doctoral degrees from the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. Her early career included research in theoretical physics at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and sabbatical at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
After founding Creatv MicroTech in 1996, Dr. Tang initially focused on developing cutting-edge microfabrication to improve x-ray imaging by reducing scatter x-rays. However, an unexpected opportunity opened to leverage microfabrication to solve one of medicine’s most persistent challenges—early cancer detection. This led to the launch of Creative Bio, where she began directing efforts toward oncology using custom made microfabricated filters.
Her vision was bold: to develop a non-invasive test that could not only detect cancer at an early stage but also do so with high accuracy and reliability across multiple types of cancers. With years of research, multiple patents, and strong academic collaborations, that vision came to life in the form of LifeTracDx®, Creatv Bio’s flagship liquid biopsy platform.
Creatv Bio and the Birth of LifeTracDx®
Creatv Bio, headquartered in Maryland, is the biomedical arm of Creatv MicroTech and represents the culmination of years of interdisciplinary innovation. The core idea driving the company is elegantly simple: develop technologies that can identify cancer using a blood sample. The complexity lies in executing that idea in a way that’s clinically viable, reproducible, and scalable.
At the heart of the LifeTracDx® test is a proprietary technology called CellSieve™ microfilter , which isolates rare circulating cancer related cells in the bloodstream—specifically Cancer-Associated Macrophage-Like (CAML) cells and Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs). These CAML cells were discovered by Dr. Tang’s research team and are present in all types of cancers while being completely absent in healthy individuals.
This key distinction gives LifeTracDx® a powerful advantage over other liquid biopsies that focus primarily on circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) or circulating tumour cells (CTCs). CAMLs offer a cellular window into tumor microenvironment, providing a richer and more dynamic biomarker.
How It Works: The Science Behind the Screen
The process of detecting CAMLs starts with a simple blood draw—making LifeTracDx® a minimally invasive tool. The blood sample is passed through a CellSieve™ filter, which captures larger CTC and CAML cells while allowing smaller, red and white blood cells to pass through. These captured cells are then stained with fluorescent conjugated specific antibodies and analysed for specific markers and morphology under fluorescence microscopes imaging.
CAMLs are unique in that they’re multinucleated, unusually large, and express both macrophage and tumour-associated proteins. Their number, size, and morphology can correlate with the stage of the disease, tumour aggressiveness, and even treatment response. Importantly, this enables physicians to not just detect cancer but also gain a broader understanding of the tumour’s behaviour and progression.
CTCs are not as useful as CAMLs, because they are fund in blood mainly in late stages of breast, prostate, colorectal and small cell lung cancers.
Clinical Impact and Real-World Application
The potential applications of LifeTracDx® span the entire continuum of cancer care—from detection and diagnosis to treatment monitoring and recurrence prediction.
- Early Detection: By identifying CAML cells, LifeTracDx® can flag early-stage cancers across large number of tumour types, including breast, prostate, pancreatic, colorectal, and lung cancers—often before clinical symptoms appear or traditional imaging reveals tumours.
- Treatment Monitoring: CAMLs are dynamic. Their levels and morphology can change in response to chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or targeted therapies. This allows clinicians to use LifeTracDx® as a real-time monitoring tool to evaluate whether a treatment is effective. For example, LifeTracDx® can predict treatment response to a new therapy about 30 days not requiring imaging.
- Companion Diagnostics: Many recently developed cancer drugs and many in development target specific markers on the tumor cells. The cancer patient will benefit for that drug if the patient’s tumor express the marker the drug is targeting. The test to determine whether the tumor marker is called companion diagnostic for that drug. Most of the time the companion diagnostics require tissue, which may be difficult to obtain and may be expensive. LifeTracDx® can provide the companion diagnostic by blood test. For example, many immunotherapy drugs have been developed targeting PD-L1 marker on the tumor. Tumor with high PD-L1 can be killed by immunotherapy drugs. LifeTracDx® can provide continuous monitoring of PD-L1, because PD-L1 expression often changes overtime.
- Recurrence Detection: For patients in remission, regular testing with LifeTracDx® can help detect signs of recurrence well before symptoms return—giving oncologists the ability to intervene at the earliest possible stage.
- Drug Development: In clinical trials, LifeTracDx® can develop a companion diagnostic for the drug to identify responsive patient populations. By measuring CAML presence and activity within 30 days of a new therapy, drug developers can gain actionable data on efficacy and mechanism of action.
This broad utility positions LifeTracDx® as more than a diagnostic—it is an integrated clinical decision support system that empowers physicians to make timely, evidence-based decisions.
From Bench to Bedside: Regulatory and Commercial Milestones
Creatv Bio’s journey from research to real-world application has been underscored by strategic regulatory planning and clinical collaborations. The LifeTracDx® test (www.creatvbio.com) is currently available under research use only (RUO) status and is expected to launch for clinical use through CLIA-certified labs by mid-2025.
Performing research to understand the science, Creatv Bio has partnered with academic researchers and oncology networks to validate the technology across diverse patient populations. These collaborations are essential not just for regulatory approval but also for building a robust base of clinical evidence.
A Broader Mission: Empowering Precision Medicine
Beyond early detection, Dr. Tang and Creative Bio envision LifeTracDx® playing a foundational role in precision oncology. By mapping individual patient responses to treatment through CAML analysis, the test helps tailor therapies that are best suited for each case—minimising side effects and improving outcomes.
Additionally, Creatv Bio has developed complementary technologies that enable downstream molecular analyses, including whole genome sequencing, RNA profiling, and protein expression studies—all from cells captured in the initial test. This adds another layer of depth to the diagnostic value of LifeTracDx®.
Awards, Recognition, and Industry Response
Create MicroTech, the parent company, received the prestigious R&D 100 Award for microfabrication innovation in 2006, highlighting the engineering excellence that underpins its life science applications. In 2013, Creatv was honoured as Biotech Company of the Year in Montgomery County, Maryland—a reflection of its dual impact on both local and national biotech ecosystems.
Industry analysts and clinicians alike have taken note of Creatv Bio’s potential. Its work has been featured in key oncology conferences, peer-reviewed journals, and health innovation showcases. As the healthcare industry increasingly pivots toward value-based care, the appeal of a cost-effective and minimally invasive cancer diagnosis continues to grow.