STTR Phase I: Novel Materials for a PicoCalorimeter Biological Application

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project, a collaborative effort between HYRPES and the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering of the University at Albany, NY, proposes to revolutionize the field of microcalorimetry with a micromachined biocalorimeter that is faster than conventional devices, more sensitive and inexpensive enough to be disposable. The device will feature one or more sample spaces etched into a silicon chip. Unlike earlier micromachined calorimeters, the high sensitivity is obtained in air, and without the need of a surrounding vacuum, making the new device ideal for studies of cellular metabolism. The overall research objectives are to introduce innovations that optimize and refine our ?PicoCalorimeter? designs to obtain 100 pico-Watt sensitivities in combination with other biological measurements. The broader impacts of this research are the measurement of cell metabolism, the identification of drug effects on specific cell types, and the study of protein folding, structural transitions and other biological phenomena. The proposed effort introduces a totally new type of microcalorimeter with a set of innovative features enabling measurements that are now impossible. The high sensitivity will enable the detection of much smaller sample volumes than ever before, thereby accelerating the time to prepare and investigate many biological reactions. Besides basic research in cellular metabolism, enzyme function, functional genomics, and others, the proposed disposable "PicoCalorimeters" will have a major commercial application to drug development and evaluation, and the detection of a wide range of toxins in liquid samples.