Keynote Speaker Abstract: As rapid advances in high throughput DNA sequencing have fueled a deeper understanding of cancer genomes, an era of personalized medicine is well underway, in which therapeutic approaches can be selected that are likely to be most effective against specific mutations. Sequencing of tissues and bloodborne nucleic acids at various stages of cancer development are revealing specific biomarkers in the form of RNA and DNA sequences whose presence and concentration correlate with tumor size, mutation presence, and clinical outcomes such as survival. While DNA sequencing is powerful, its cost, complexity, and data interpretation is not compatible with frequent, longitudinal, and routine clinical characterization of cancer, as needed for early diagnosis, measuring treatment effectiveness, monitoring for the emergence of new mutations, and monitoring for recurrence. Therefore, new tools are needed that can rapidly and inexpensively measure the presence of mutation-specific DNA and RNA sequences in a minimally invasive way, such as detection of biomarker molecules in a small volume of blood. The ability to measure the presence of several biomarkers at the same time during a doctor’s visit would be especially impactful to inform clinical decision-making