SBIR Phase I: Industrial-Scale Technology for Drug Development in Mature Human Fat Cells

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响是增加新技术的规模和吞吐量，有可能发现和开发下一代肥胖症治疗方法以及可以通过减肥改善的一系列相关医疗状况。这项技术还可以扩展到治疗开发，以解决以患病脂肪细胞为特征的其他生殖和衰老疾病。该项目可能使人类脂肪细胞药物开发达到以前无法达到的质量和规模。在过去的50年里，脂肪细胞药物开发的第一阶段受到缺乏忠实再现成熟脂肪细胞临床特征的易处理系统的限制。该项目中的技术可以有效地将成人干细胞转化为脂肪细胞，并将其成熟速度比传统方法加快数千倍。通过这种新技术产生的脂肪细胞可能更接近成年人成熟脂肪细胞的细胞形状和大小，基因表达谱和功能。扩展该技术将需要开发新的自动化设备以及设计和测试定制协议。成功与否将取决于制造质量控制和成熟人体脂肪组织的具体特性。该奖项反映了NSF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 of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to increase the scale and throughput of novel technology with the potential to enable the discovery and development of next-generation therapeutics for obesity and the array of associated medical conditions that can be ameliorated with weight loss. This technology could also be expanded to therapeutic development to address other reproductive and ageing disorders characterized by diseased fat cells.This project may enable drug development in human fat cells at a previously unattainable quality and scale. For the last 50 years, the first stage of drug development in adipocytes has been limited by the lack of a tractable system that faithfully reproduces the clinical features of mature fat cells. The technology in this project could efficiently turn adult human stem cells into fat cells and accelerate their maturation thousands of times relative to conventional methods. Adipocytes generated by this new technology may more closely match the cellular shape and size, gene expression profile, and function of mature fat cells in adults. Scaling the technology will require development of novel devices for automation and the design and testing of customized protocols. Success will be determined by measures of manufacturing quality control and specific properties of mature human fat tissue.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.