I-Corps: High Throughput Single Cell Assay Platforms

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This project aims to commercialize high-throughput single cell assay chips for cancer drug screening and modeling of cancer metastasis. Cancer is one of leading causes of death in many developed countries, and cancer metastasis accounts for 90% of the death caused by cancer. Conventional methods for studying metastasis are limited by low throughput or poor relevance to in-vivo microenvironment. There is an unmet need to develop in-vitro devices which can emulate critical steps of the metastatic cascade. In addition to the in-vitro cancer metastasis modeling, the proposed work aims to provide the solution to monitor and analyze cancer cell heterogeneity. Cancer drug resistance is one of the greatest challenges in cancer treatments. The conventional drug development methods used to focus on average drug efficacy and cannot target the drug resistant tumor cells in the whole tumor, which may lead to the relapse of tumor. The presented prototype platforms in this application provide the capability of high-throughput assays at single cell resolution, which can shift the paradigm of cancer research and cancer treatment. The proposed platforms also enable high-throughput screening and in-vitro metastasis emulation, resulting in significant reduction in drug development cost. The proposed platform technology can facilitate the development of novel therapeutic ideas with lower assay cost at high throughput. The proposed devices have a high commercial potential by meeting the need to realize high-throughput low-cost assays for cancer drug development and screening in research communities as well as pharmaceutical companies.