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

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发早期癌症诊断，以改善癌症的检测。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，医疗保健报销制度主要依赖于出现症状的患者，除了乳腺癌或结肠癌，这些癌症有主动筛查。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费用至关重要，但现有的血液检查和成像方法不足以明确大多数早期癌症的发生。这项拟议中的技术是一种基于血液的癌症诊断方法，可以在患者的年度检查中使用，也可以增强癌症的影像学检查。它使用一系列抗体与脂质体结合，脂质体是一种由细胞膜状材料制成的小泡，使它们能够以高特异性与癌细胞结合。通过脂质体抗体技术早期检测癌症，有可能改善患者的生活质量，降低患者发病率，并降低与医疗保健相关的成本。I-Corps项目的基础是开发癌症筛查技术，以发现早期癌症。所提出的技术是一种脂质体抗体平台，设想用于成像辅助，可在磁共振成像（MRI），正电子发射断层扫描（PET）或计算机断层扫描（CT）扫描之前给予患者，类似于目前对患者给予一般MRI造影剂或示踪剂的方式。脂质体被设计成在外膜上附着抗体，使它们能够聚集在肿瘤细胞周围，并包裹成像染料，以帮助放射科医生检测癌细胞的生长。此外，建议的基于血液的检测系统可以在年度检查时对患者进行管理。一系列工程抗体可以嵌入脂质体中，使它们能够高特异性地与病变细胞结合，避免附着在健康细胞上。脂质体被设计为包含多种无细胞表达系统，编码信号分子的独特肽。这种组合可以在微观水平上筛查许多不同的癌症，并监测它们的生长情况。所提出的技术也可用于监测和量化治疗效果。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 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.