DEVELOPMENT OF A HAND-HELD FLOW CYTOMETER: HIV DIAGNOSIS

这个子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供的资源的许多研究子项目之一。子项目和调查员(PI)可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可能会出现在其他CRISE条目中。列出的机构是针对中心的，而不一定是针对调查员的机构。该项目的目标是开发用于生物医学应用的低成本便携式流式细胞仪。这些仪器将在许多领域产生重大影响，包括医学(艾滋病毒和癌症诊断)、国土防御(生物点检测、生物监测和法医分析)和一般生物医学研究(配体-受体研究、分子组装分析、高通量筛查和基因分型)。许多强大的应用使流式细胞仪成为几乎每一所大学、医学院、制药公司和诊断实验室的固定设备。然而，大量消耗品的大小、费用和要求限制了它们在正规实验室环境中的使用。一种低成本的便携式流式细胞仪将使所有的临床医生和研究人员都可以使用这些应用程序，这将对世界健康和研究产生重大影响。为了开发这样的仪器，我们将开发(在R21阶段)允许粒子聚焦而不使用鞘流体的技术。鞘液体的去除将增加仪器的便携性，并减少消耗品的需求。我们的新技术将使无套便携式流式细胞仪能够达到传统的颗粒分析率，同时使用传统流式细胞仪的一小部分功率和消耗品。我们还将开发低功率激励/检测系统(R21相)，不需要广泛的温度调节来实现光学测量稳定性。这样的系统将显著降低流式细胞仪的尺寸、成本和功率要求。最后，我们将把上述技术集成到一个微型的、负担得起的流式细胞仪中，具有先进的样本处理能力，大大降低了对消耗品和电力的需求(R33阶段)。为了做到这一点，我们将把上述技术结合到一个微型制造的流式细胞仪核心中，该核心可以很容易地与样品处理和光学模块接口。我们还将开发一个微型低功率数据采集系统，以组装一个完整的微型低功率流式细胞仪。我们将使用定量流式细胞仪技术来验证仪器性能。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The goal of this project is to develop low cost portable flow cytometers for use in biomedical applications. Such instruments would have a large impact in many areas including medicine (HIV and cancer diagnosis), homeland defense (biological point detection, bio-surveillance, and forensic analysis) and general biomedical research (ligand-receptor studies, molecular assembly analysis, high throughput screening and genotyping). The many powerful applications have made flow cytometers a fixture in nearly every university, medical school, pharmaceutical company, and diagnostic lab. However, the size, expense and requirement for large amounts of consumables have limited their use to formal laboratory settings. A low cost portable flow cytometer would make these applications available to all clinicians and researchers, which would have a great impact on world health and research. To develop such an instrument we will develop (in the R21 phase) technologies that allow particle focusing without the use of sheath fluid. The elimination of sheath fluid will result in increased portability of the instrument and also reduce consumable requirements. Our novel technology will allow a sheathless portable flow cytometer to achieve conventional particle analysis rates, while using a fraction of the power and consumables of a conventional flow cytometer. We will also develop low power excitation/detection systems (R21 phase) that will not require extensive thermoregulation to achieve optical measurement stability. Such systems, will significantly reduce the size, cost and power requirements of a flow cytometer. Finally, we will integrate the above technologies into a miniature affordable flow cytometer, with advanced sample handling capabilities that has significantly reduced consumable and power requirements (R33 phase). To do this we will combine the above technologies into a microfabricated flow cytometer core that can easily be interfaced with sample handling and optical modules. We will also develop a miniature low power data acquisition system to enable assembly of a complete miniature low power flow cytometer. We will validate instrument performance using quantitative flow cytometry techniques.