I-Corps: Massively Parallel High-Resolution Optical Electrophysiology

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是一个系统的潜在发展，可以为电生理学的科学家提供更具成本效益和更易于使用的工具，并可能允许改进致密电致细胞培养的表征。这项技术可以让制药公司更好地了解细胞对新药的反应，并可以在临床试验中提供更明智的、数据驱动的决策。这一创新还可以为生物制剂制造商提供有关其细胞培养发展的更多信息，从而降低与细胞培养失败相关的生产成本。此外，学术科学家可以利用这项技术来描述大型神经群体中的信息传递，这可能会在神经科学等领域开启新的见解。这个I-Corps项目的基础是开发一种新的电生理表型筛选和监测系统。该系统监测心肌细胞、神经元和其他细胞的电活动，以表征它们的行为和健康状况，具有比其他系统更高的空间分辨率、吞吐量和监测时间。这可能使药物开发和生物制剂制造能够收集更多数据，并为其产品管道开发更可靠的分析方法。目前监测细胞表型筛选的方法包括使用微电极阵列，其空间分辨率有限，吞吐量相对较低，并且工业利用的成本可能更高。这项技术使用了一种新型的光学传感器，将等离子体与电致变色相结合，可能会创建一个无线、高分辨率和高通量的平台，用于长期监测电生理。该平台可以开发更便宜、更可靠的检测方法，以及对细胞健康和细胞群信息交换的全新描述。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the potential development of a system that could provide more cost-effective and easier-to-use tools for scientists in electrophysiology, and possibly allow the improved characterization of dense electrogenic cell cultures. The technology may allow pharmaceutical companies the ability to better understand how cells respond to new drugs and could provide more informed, data-driven decisions during clinical trials. This innovation could also provide biologic manufacturers with more information regarding the development of their cell cultures which may reduce production costs associated with failed cell cultures. In addition, academic scientists may utilize this technology to characterize information transfer in large neural populations and which may unlock new insights in fields such as neuroscience.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a novel system for phenotypic screening and monitoring in electrophysiology. The system monitors the electrical activity of cardiomyocytes, neurons, and other cells to characterize their behavior and health with potentially more spatial resolution, throughput, and monitoring time than other systems. This may allow drug development and biologics manufacturing to gather more data and develop more robust assays for their product pipelines. The current approach to monitoring cells for phenotypic screening involves the use of microelectrode arrays, which can be limited in spatial resolution, are comparatively low throughput, and may cost more for industries to utilize. This technology uses a novel optical sensor that combines plasmonics with electrochromics to possibly create a platform that would be wireless, high resolution, and high throughput for long-term monitoring of electrophysiology. This platform may enable the development of cheaper, more robust assays as well as entirely new characterizations of cell health and information exchange in cell populations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.