I-Corps: Commercialization of Radio-Carbon Analyzer for Biomedical Applications

该团队开发了一种超灵敏放射性碳检测的新方法。这项基于激光的技术允许测量有机化合物中放射性标签的痕量，大约为万亿分之一。拟议中的分析仪有可能改变制药行业在人类临床试验之前很久就为其药物发现和开发计划使用放射性标记碳进行新陈代谢和毒性研究的方式。这种分析器技术的商业化版本将使科学家能够在现场更快地进行超灵敏的测量，样品较少，因此放射性较低。现有的加速器质谱仪技术有效地计算原子，因为它们在一个占用很大空间且维护成本高昂的大型设备平台上加速。这是复杂和昂贵的；只有少数几个这样的系统用于生物放射性碳研究，而且样品必须外包给这样的设施，周转时间长。现有的液体闪烁计数器(LSC)技术必须使用大3-4个数量级的样品，辐射要高得多，因为β衰变计数技术缺乏对许多新陈代谢和毒性研究的灵敏度。这项拟议的基于激光的技术在放电过程中有效地利用激光每秒数百万次地刺激二氧化碳分子，并获得电子响应(称为光电流效应)。这项拟议的技术有可能降低与新药开发相关的成本，使药代动力学研究能够比目前更早地在人体上启动，从而加快批准和上市的时间。

The team has developed a new method for ultrasensitive radiocarbon detection. The laser-based technology allows the measurement of trace amounts, on the order of one part per one trillion, of radioactive label in organic compounds. The proposed analyzer has the potential to change the way the pharmaceutical industry conducts metabolic and toxicity studies with radio-labeled carbon for its drug discovery and development programs long before human clinical trials. A commercialized version of this analyzer technology would enable scientists to conduct ultrasensitive measurements more quickly on-site and with small samples and thus less radioactivity.Existing Accelerator Mass Spectrometer technology effectively counts atoms as they are accelerated across a large equipment platform that takes up a large room and is expensive to maintain. It is complex and expensive; only a few such systems exist for the purposes of Biological Radiocarbon studies, and samples must be outsourced to such facilities with long turnaround times. Existing Liquid Scintillation Counter (LSC) technology must use samples 3-4 orders of magnitude larger with much higher radiation because the beta-decay counting technique lacks the sensitivity for many metabolic and toxicity studies. The proposed laser based technology effectively tickles the CO2 molecules with a laser millions of times per second in an electrical discharge and obtains an electronic response (known as the Optogalvanic Effect). The proposed technology has the potential to reduce the costs associated with new drug development by enabling pharmacokinetic studies to be initiated in humans sooner than currently possible and will thus accelerate the time to approval and market.