Development and manufacture of self-assembled, multifunctional composite nanoparticles with magnetic and fluorescent properties for cell-based assays

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Canada's health care system is overburdened with both cost and demand, but at the same time critically needs new technologies that can deliver advances in diagnostics and personalized medicine to Canadians. These new technologies must therefore be cost-effective and easily deployed. The manufacture of composite NPs can enable such technologies. We propose to develop and manufacture multifunctional composite nanoparticles that combine magnetic properties with ultra-bright fluorescence. These particles will combine several component materials, resulting in new composite nanoparticles with capabilities that exceed those of the component materials individually. The component materials include fluorescent semiconductor quantum dots (QDs), semiconducting polymer dots (Pdots), and amphiphilic chemically-functionalized polymers from our laboratories, as well as magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles from our industry partner, Vancouver-based STEMCELL Technologies Inc. The polymer and QD or PDot components will be self-assembled in a layered, hierarchical structure around the central magnetic nanoparticle, then further self-assembled with an outer layer of bioactive molecules such as tetrameric antibody complexes (also from STEMCELL) or nucleic acid aptamers that we will develop. The self-assembly processes will provide the control and reproducibility necessary for the automated manufacture, scale-up, and online characterization of the composite nanoparticles, which is a process that we also propose to develop. The combined brightness, magnetism, and bioactivity of the composite nanoparticle will enable the simple, low-cost separation of target cells from complex samples (e.g., blood) with detection and counting of the target cells on a smartphone. A peripheral device will be developed for the smartphone to enable this capability. The proposed technology is potentially transformative in that it can make cell-based diagnostic assays amenable to point-of-care diagnostics and personalized medicine (e.g., detection of circulating tumour cells), surpassing current technologies that are costly, require special training, and are only available in specialized labs.**************