Preethi Bhatt

Preethi Bhatt studies circulating tumor cells (CTCs) as both liquid biopsy biomarkers and mediators of cancer metastasis, with particular focus on CTC clusters and their enhanced metastatic potential. Her research characterized how CTC clusters maintain cell-cell junctions during blood transit and are significantly more efficient at initiating metastatic colonies than single CTCs. She developed microfluidic CTC capture technologies and applied single-cell transcriptomics to reveal the CTC phenotypic landscape and metastatic competence markers. Her translational work evaluates CTC enumeration and molecular profiling for prognosis and treatment response monitoring.