I-Corps: Commercialization of A High Throughput Cell Mechanical Stimulator

I-Corps：高通量细胞机械刺激器的商业化

• 批准号: 1450117
• 负责人: Yi Zhao
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Ohio State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-01 至 2016-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1450117&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Commercialization; Throughput; Cell; Mechanical

Cell based assays have been widely used for drug discovery, where the effectiveness and toxicity of drugs on live cells in presence of various external stimulations are examined. Lab-on-chip technologies with high throughput capability have greatly propelled the development of cell based assays by significantly reducing the time and cost of applying these stimulations and obtaining the cell responses. Current technologies that stimulate live cells by mechanical signals, however, have relatively low throughput. This project is to explore the commercialization potential of a high throughput cell mechanical stimulator, which applies controlled strain to a large number of in vitro cultured cell groups. The proposed technology provides an important research tool for biological researchers in the field of cellular biomechanics and mechanobiology. The high throughput and multiplex capability enabled by the proposed technology meets the imperative needs for parallel application of mechanical stimulation to live cells. Understanding how mechanical signals regulate cell function and how they orchestrate with drugs and medications is therefore a fundamental question that attracts extraordinary attentions of a large number of researchers in universities and pharmaceutical industry. The proposed device is expected to provide a powerful research tool to enhance our understanding of the role of mechanical signals and their synergistic effects with drugs/medications. It is expected to hasten new knowledge in mechanobiology and new treatments against diseases in many fields. It will also allow high throughput screening of drugs and medications that target on treatments of mechanical-activated cells and tissues. The greatly enhanced throughput and lower per-test cost are also expected to expand the market from basic research laboratories at universities to pre-clinical and applied research divisions in pharmaceutical industry.

基于细胞的测定已被广泛用于药物发现，其中在存在各种外部刺激的情况下检查药物对活细胞的有效性和毒性。具有高通量能力的芯片实验室技术通过显著减少施加这些刺激和获得细胞响应的时间和成本，极大地推动了基于细胞的测定的发展。然而，通过机械信号刺激活细胞的当前技术具有相对低的通量。本项目旨在探索高通量细胞机械刺激器的商业化潜力，该刺激器将受控应变施加到大量体外培养的细胞群。该技术为细胞生物力学和机械生物学领域的生物研究人员提供了重要的研究工具。所提出的技术实现的高通量和多路复用能力满足了对活细胞并行应用机械刺激的迫切需求。因此，了解机械信号如何调节细胞功能以及它们如何与药物和药物协调是一个基本问题，吸引了大学和制药行业大量研究人员的特别关注。预计该设备将提供一个强大的研究工具，以提高我们对机械信号的作用及其与药物/药物的协同作用的理解。它有望加速机械生物学的新知识和许多领域疾病的新治疗方法。它还将允许高通量筛选针对机械活化细胞和组织治疗的药物和药物。大大提高的吞吐量和较低的每次测试成本也有望将市场从大学的基础研究实验室扩展到制药行业的临床前和应用研究部门。