NANOARRAYER: A TOOL FOR CREATING NANO-SCALE BIOARRAYS

这项研究计划的最终目标是开发一种超小型、超灵敏、固态、分子分析平台技术并将其商业化。这种“纳米阵列”技术是基于直接询问纳米尺度空间阵列中的分子相互作用事件，而不使用任何外在标记或分子报告系统。它在分子诊断学、基因组学、蛋白质组学和药物发现方面有着广泛的应用，在减少材料成本和产生的废物、提高产量和灵敏度以及概念简单性方面具有显著优势。将开发纳米阵列技术的两个组成部分。在第一阶段，将建造一个原型纳米阵列，并用于在纳米级可寻址区域中创建分子的空间阵列。第一阶段的里程碑目标是使用这种纳米阵列来创建由单个分子物种组成的10x10阵列和由4个不同分子物种组成的4x4阵列。在LI阶段，重点将转移到基于原子力显微镜(AFM)原理的纳米阵列读取器的构建和测试，以及对纳米阵列设计和纳米阵列构建方法的改进。建议的商业应用：这项技术的商业应用包括：固态阵列上配体/目标相互作用的高通量筛选、DNA-蛋白质相互作用筛选和固态分子诊断。

The ultimate goal of this research program is the development and commercialization of an ultraminiaturized, ultrasensitive, solid state, molecular analysis platform technology. This "NanoArray" technology is based on the direct interrogation of molecular interactions events in nanometer scale spatial arrays in real time without the use of any extrinsic label or molecular reporter system. It has broad ranging applications in molecular diagnostics, genomics, proteomics, and drug discovery with significant advantages in terms of reduction in materials costs and waste generated, increased throughput and sensitivity, and conceptual simplicity. Two components of the NanoArray technology will be developed. In Phase I, a prototype NanoArrayer will be constructed and used to create spatial arrays of molecules in nanometer scale addressable domains. The milestone goal of Phase I is to use this NanoArrayer to create a 10x10 array of a single molecular species and a 4x4 array of 4 different molecular species. In Phase lI the focus will shift to construction and testing of a NanoArray reader based on the principles of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and improvements in the NanoArrayer design and NanoArray construction methodology. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: Commercial applications of this technology include; high throughput screening of ligand/target interactions on solid state arrays, DNA-protein interaction screening, and solid state molecular diagnostics.