SBIR Phase I: Smart Petri Dish with Built-in Imaging Capabilities for Cell Culture Monitoring

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目将开发智能培养皿，这是一种无透镜的亚像素分辨率显微镜，它将在低成本、易于使用的系统中从孵化器内自动监控细胞培养，从而在广泛的视野内提供高分辨率图像。目前的细胞培养实验需要大量的体力劳动，这使得它们既昂贵又不方便。为了开发Smart Petri Dish，我们将设计一种独特的具有热控功能的可拆卸图像传感器墨盒，开发一种用于亚像素分辨率图像构建的新型多线程稀疏卷积滤波软件算法，通过密集照明阵列提高无透镜成像方法的空间分辨率，并测试由此产生的Smart PetriDish原型的可靠培养细胞的能力。预计这项研究将证明商业上可行的原型系统的可行性，该系统可以在项目第二阶段进一步开发成成功的商业产品。如果成功，该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是一个将细胞培养实验自动化并消除大部分繁琐的体力劳动的系统。作为一种低成本、紧凑的诊断工具，它将使研究和诊断能够在地理分散的地区进行，那里的集中式细胞培养实验室的准入有限。而且，在小学教育实验室，它将向大量高中生介绍细胞培养的实验方法和技术，这要归功于它的低成本和操作简单。总而言之，这些影响将加强对细胞生长的科学和技术理解，并为研究、诊断和教育带来新的工具。根据对市场规模和潜在市场份额的现实预测，到生产的第三年，智能皮氏培养皿的潜在商业价值是每年1000万美元的收入。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop the Smart Petri Dish, a lens-free subpixel resolution microscope, which will automate cell culture monitoring from within the incubator in a low-cost, easy-to-use system that provides high-resolution images over a wide field of view. Current cell culture experiments require significant manual labor, making them costly and inconvenient. To develop the Smart Petri Dish, we will design a unique demountable image sensor cartridge with thermal control, develop a novel multithread sparse convolution filtering software algorithm for subpixel resolution image construction, enhance the spatial resolution of the lens-free imaging method with a dense illumination array, and test the resulting prototype Smart Petri Dish for its ability to reliably culture cells. It is anticipated that this research will demonstrate the feasibility of a commercially viable prototype system that can be further developed into a successful commercial product in Phase II of the project.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project, if successful, will be a system that will automate cell culture experiments and remove much of the cumbersome manual labor. As a low-cost, compact diagnostic tool, it will enable research and diagnosis in geographically dispersed regions where there is limited access to centralized cell culture laboratories. And, in primary education laboratories, it will introduce a large number of high school students to cell culture experimental methods and techniques, thanks to its low cost and simplicity of operation. Together, these impacts will enhance scientific and technological understanding of cell growth, and bring new tools to research, diagnosis, and education. The potential commercial value of the Smart Petri Dish is $10 M per year in revenues by the third year of production, based upon realistic projections of market size and potential market share.