I-Corps: Fluorescent Probes for Molecular Diagnostics

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to generate technology that improves the accuracy of medical diagnostic tests and eases restrictions on the collection of tissue from patients. If it can be widely disseminated through commercialization, this technology will allow patients to receive a more accurate diagnosis of diseases like cancer, with a more rapid turnaround time and lower cost to the healthcare system. Moreover, secondary biopsies or blood draws that are painful and expensive can be avoided. The project has exceptional potential for commercialization due to the multi-billion dollar market for diagnostic tests at present and due to clear pressing clinical needs to fill in technological gaps that limit the accuracy of diagnostic tests for cancer.The I-Corps project is focused on a new generation of light-emitting nanoparticles that function as the critical means to perform measurements in medical diagnostic tests. These new nanoparticles, called quantum dots, provide the new ability to count individual molecules in diseased tissue and in blood, which is a major leap forward in diagnostic testing compared with standard tests that simply provide a qualitative outcome of "high" or "low." Moreover, quantum dots allow the simultaneous interrogation of numerous classes of molecules related to diseases, instead of having to perform repeated tests. Importantly, this technology can be implemented on low-cost instruments that are already widely available in medical diagnostics labs, so there are few barriers preventing entry into the market. Outcomes have been validated in a research laboratory setting, however they must be scaled for commercialization and finely tuned to meet specific needs in medical diagnostics settings.