I-Corps: Early-stage cancer diagnostic platform using cell-free expression systems and liposomal nanotechnology

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种早期癌症诊断方法，以改进对癌症的检测。在美国，每年有190万人被诊断出患有癌症，平均有60.9万人死亡。目前，医疗保健报销系统主要依赖于出现症状的患者，但乳腺癌或结肠癌除外，这些癌症都有积极的筛查。然而，早期发现癌症对于提高生活质量、降低患者发病率和降低医疗成本至关重要，但现有的血液测试和成像方法不够具体，不足以阐明大多数早期癌症的发生。这项拟议的技术是一种基于血液的癌症诊断技术，可以在每年的体检期间对患者进行管理，以及增强癌症的成像测试。它使用一系列与脂质体结合的抗体，脂质体是由细胞膜状材料制成的微小气泡，使它们能够以高度特异性与癌细胞结合。通过使用建议的脂质体-抗体技术更早地检测癌症，有可能提高患者的生活质量，降低患者发病率，并降低与医疗相关的成本。这个i-Corps项目是基于开发用于检测早期癌症的癌症筛查技术。这项拟议的技术是一种脂质体-抗体平台，设想用于在磁共振成像(MRI)、正电子发射断层扫描(PET)或计算机断层扫描(CT)之前为患者提供成像辅助，类似于目前向患者提供普通MRI对比染料或示踪剂的方式。这种脂质体的设计是将抗体附着在外膜上，使它们能够聚集在肿瘤细胞周围，并将包裹成像染料，以帮助放射科医生检测癌症生长。此外，拟议的血液检测系统可能会在年度体检期间向患者实施。一系列工程抗体可以嵌入脂质体中，使它们能够以高特异性结合到患病细胞上，并避免与健康细胞附着。脂质体被设计成包含编码信号分子的多个独特多肽的无细胞表达系统。这种结合可以在显微镜水平上对许多不同的癌症进行筛查，并监测它们随时间的生长。这项提议的技术还可以用于监测和量化治疗效果。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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 development of an early-stage cancer diagnostic to improve detection of cancer. In the US, 1.9 million people are diagnosed with cancer annually, with an average of 609,000 deaths. Currently, the healthcare reimbursement system mostly relies on patients presenting symptoms, except for cancers of the breast or colon where there is proactive screening. However, detecting cancer early is critical to improving quality of life, decreasing patient morbidity, and reducing healthcare costs but available blood tests and imaging methods are not specific enough to elucidate most early cancer occurrences. The proposed technology is a blood-based cancer diagnostic that may be administered to patients during annual checkups as well as to enhance imaging tests for cancer. It uses an array of antibodies conjugated to liposomes, a tiny bubble made from cell membrane-like materials, enabling them to bind to cancer cells with high specificity. By detecting cancers earlier with the proposed liposomal-antibody technology, there is the potential to improve patients’ quality of life, decrease patient morbidity, and reduce costs related to healthcare.This I-Corps project is based on the development of cancer screening technology for the detection of early-stage cancers. The proposed technology is a liposomal-antibody platform envisioned as for imaging assistance that may be given to patients before magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET) or computed tomography (CT) scans similar to the way general MRI contrast dye or tracers are administered to patients currently. The liposomes are designed to have antibodies attached to the outer membrane that will enable them to congregate around tumor cells and will encapsulate imaging dyes to assist radiologists in detecting cancerous growth. In addition, the proposed blood-based detection system may be administered to patients during annual checkups. An array of engineered antibodies may be embedded into liposomes enabling them to bind to diseased cells with high specificity and avoid attachment to healthy cells. The liposomes are designed to contain cell-free expression systems for multiple, unique peptides that encode signaling molecules. This combination may enable screening for many different cancers at the microscopic level and monitoring their growth over time. The proposed technology also may be used to monitor and quantify treatment efficacy.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.