A research and drug development tool for the real time in vitro study of single c

描述：在这个SBIR第二阶段，PicoCal将开发一种高通量仪器，在单个受体-配体相互作用的水平上实时测量细胞黏附的变化。这一工具在研究和药物开发中发现了关键的应用，并将使研究人员能够研究和操纵生物活性化合物的粘附性，以促进或抑制生理过程。为了阐明细胞内信号机制的不同途径，并筛选干扰这些途径的新的关键化合物，有重要的工业和科学需求来检测趋化因子或其他高生物活性化合物所引起的变化。这些发现可能有助于开发治疗癌症、动脉硬化和自身免疫性疾病(如类风湿性关节炎)的新疗法。在研究和药物开发中，科学家们必须研究数千种化合物，以确定一种化合物是激活还是抑制黏附。此外，许多疾病，如癌症，是复杂的，需要测试多个分析物和新的关键化合物，以准确地进行药物开发和治疗。在药物开发中需要新的工具来识别抑制或促进黏附的生物活性化合物--或调节受体亲和力的细微变化。该仪器还可以帮助研究人员研究细胞黏附变化的机制，如促进肿瘤和器官特异性转移。关键的研究和制药应用包括：白细胞和造血干细胞与血管的黏附，以及与其他细胞(骨髓壁龛)或细胞外基质(ECM)蛋白的黏附，血小板黏附，细菌和微生物黏附(生物污染)。

DESCRIPTION: In this SBIR Phase II PicoCal will develop a high throughput apparatus to measure changes in cell adhesion at the level of individual receptor-ligand interactions in real time. This tool finds critical applications in research and drug development and would allow researchers to study and manipulate adhesion by bioactive compounds to promote or inhibit physiological processes. There is a significant industrial and scientific need to detect changes that can be induced by chemokines or other highly bioactive compounds in order to elucidate the different pathways of signaling mechanisms within a cell and to screen for new key compounds interfering with such pathways. These findings may help to develop new therapies for cancer, arteriosclerosis, and autoimmune diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis. In research and drug development scientists have to study thousands of compounds to determine, if a compound activates or inhibits adhesion. In addition, many diseases such as cancer are complex and require testing multiple analytes and new key compounds for accurate drug development and treatment. There is a need for new tools in drug development to identify bio- active compounds that inhibit or promote adhesion - or modulate subtle changes in receptor affinity. The instrument can also aid researchers in studying the mechanisms of cell adhesion changes such as in tumor promotion and organ-specific metastasis. Key research and pharmaceutical applications include: leukocyte and hematopoietic stem cell adhesion to blood vessels, as well as to other cells (bone marrow niche) or to extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, platelet adhesion, bacteria and micro-organism adhesion (bio-fouling).