Nanostructured substrates for cell assays

描述（由申请方提供）：我们在该2期SBIR提案中的目标是开发和优化用于新型细胞迁移试验的组分。在第一阶段，我们证明了液晶在响应细胞膜时具有可预测的方向，因此它们可以用于报告细胞数量的灵敏，快速，可推广的方法。在这个应用中，我们建议建立在液晶的能力，以准确地报告细胞数量和空间位置的发展中的定量测定细胞迁移。这种创新的方法将提供一种技术，通过减少劳动力，时间和成本，并通过提供与高通量格式的兼容性，与目前的方法相比，具有许多固有的优势。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our goal in this Phase 2 SBIR proposal is to develop and optimize the components for a novel cell migration assay. In Phase 1, we demonstrated that liquid crystals assume a predictable orientation in response to cellular membranes, and therefore they could be used in a sensitive, rapid, generalizable method for reporting cell number. In this application, we propose to build on the ability of liquid crystals to accurately report cell number and spatial location in the development of a quantitative assay for cell migration. This innovative approach will provide a technology with many intrinsic advantages over current methods by reducing labor, time and cost and by providing compatibility with high throughput formats.