Nanostructured substrates for cell assays

描述（由申请人提供）：我们在这个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成分。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，因此它们可以用于灵敏，快速，通用的报告细胞数量的方法。在这个应用中，我们建议建立在液晶准确报告细胞数量和空间位置的能力上，以开发细胞迁移的定量分析。这种创新的方法通过减少劳动力、时间和成本以及提供与高吞吐量格式的兼容性，将提供一种比当前方法具有许多内在优势的技术。

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.