SBIR Phase II: Development of Resonant Waveguide-Grating Elements for High Throughput Screening of Proteins

这个小型企业INUS研究（SBIR）第二阶段研究项目应用了一种新的传感器原理来开发用于药物开发应用的商业高通量筛选（HTS）系统。导模谐振（GMR）传感器概念用于此类应用的优点在于其固有的物理特性，包括偏振多样性、材料独立性、光谱区域的选择、角度寻址灵活性以及相关的紧凑系统配置。这些特性使无标签传感器技术具有高灵敏度、高精度和多参数检测。一个主要目标是开发和验证GMR传感器HTS商业系统原型的标准格式。综合分析软件将向用户提供生物分子结合事件的数据，包括背景密度和分子积累动力学。另一个主要的推动力是开发用于传感器激活的附件化学和方法，其中一组协议和过程（例如被测对象）将被优化以最大化检测灵敏度。最后，通过应用具有成形输入光束和集成检测器矩阵的透射传感器格式，将提供用于药物化合物的大规模并行筛选的下一代紧凑系统设计。这项研究项目将促进药物发现的进展。导模共振传感器在没有化学标签的情况下工作，允许观察和研究未受干扰的生化过程，因为没有引入外来物质。因此，这些传感器提供了对化学和生物分子反应的增强理解，并可能导致化学过程开发和药物发现和设计的进步。此外，这类生物传感器还具有其他潜在的应用，包括医学诊断、蛋白质组学、基因组学、环境监测和国土安全。将该技术应用于微流体、芯片实验室和用于国土安全和环境监测的无线集成传感器，可以为生物毒素、爆炸物和危险材料的准确和具有成本效益的检测提供新的工具。

This Small Business Inovation Research (SBIR) Phase II research project applies a new sensor principle to develop commercial High-Throughput Screening (HTS) systems for drug-development applications. The advantages of the Guided-Mode Resonance (GMR) sensor concept for such applications reside in its inherent physical characteristics including polarization diversity, materials independence, choice of spectral regions, angular-addressing flexibility, and associated compact system configurations. These properties enable tag-free sensor technology with high sensitivity, high accuracy, and multi-parameter detection. A major objective is the development and verification of GMR-sensor HTS commercial system prototypes in standard formats. Integrated analysis software will present data on biomolecular binding events, including background density and molecular accumulation dynamics, to the user. An additional main thrust is the development of attachment chemistry and methods for sensor activation where a set of protocols and processes for example measurands will be optimized to maximize detection sensitivity. Finally, by applying transmission sensor formats with shaped input light beams and integrated detector matrices, the next-generation compact system designs for massively parallel screening of drug compounds will be provided. This research project will stimulate progress in drug discovery. Guided-mode resonance sensors operate without chemical tags permitting observation and study of unperturbed biochemical processes, as no foreign substance is introduced. Therefore, these sensors provide enhanced understanding of chemical and biomolecular reactions and may lead to advances in chemical process development and drug discovery and design. Moreover, this class of biosensors has other potential applications including medical diagnostics, proteomics, genomics, environmental monitoring, and homeland security. Application of this technology to microfluidics, lab-on-a-chip, and wireless integrated sensors for homeland security and environmental monitoring may provide new tools for accurate and cost-effective detection of biotoxins, explosives, and hazardous materials.