SBIR Phase I: Single Cell Growth Measuring Device

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段SBIR项目将展示基于MEMS的测量设备的可行性，该设备能够测量流体环境中单个哺乳动物细胞和微生物(如细菌)的生长和繁殖。该装置基于悬挂式微通道谐振器(SMR)，这是一种微细加工的振动梁，它根据振动梁的共振频率的变化测量质量的微小变化。如果成功，该设备能够达到10-15克的分辨率，因此可以在单个细胞进行有丝分裂之前快速测量它们的生长。由于其高分辨率，该设备可以通过在几分钟内直接检测生长速度的变化来测量有机体对各种治疗化合物(如抗生素)的敏感性，而不必等待此类细胞的集落培养。该项目的更广泛的商业影响是，它可以在医学和生物医学研究中的各种应用中使用，例如药物敏感性和病原体诊断技术。目前，许多传染病的诊断是通过培养可疑病原体的样本，对样本进行染色，并在显微镜下观察样本来完成的。对于结核分枝杆菌(TB)等生长缓慢的细菌，需要等待4-6周进行培养和诊断，这会延误治疗，进一步传播疾病，并加剧耐药菌株日益增长的威胁。如果成功，该设备的目标是能够通过直接识别病原体和对感染者实施的最佳疗程，将结核病诊断和治疗速度加快到数小时，而不是数周。这项技术有着广泛的应用，包括直接评估抗生素化合物、药物促进剂和抑制剂、癌症治疗以及免疫和过敏反应。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I SBIR project will demonstrate the feasibility of a MEMS-based measurement device, capable of measuring the growth and reproduction of individual mammalian cells and micro-organisms such as bacteria in fluid environments. The device is based on a suspended microchannel resonator (SMR), a microfabricated vibrating beam which measures minute changes in mass based on shifts in the resonant frequency of the vibrating beam. If successful, the device is capable of femtogram (10-15 gram) resolution, and can therefore measure the growth of individual cells rapidly, before they undergo mitosis. Because of its high resolution, the device can be used to measure the susceptibility of the organism to various therapeutic compounds, such as antibiotics, by detecting changes in the growth rate directly, in a matter of minutes, without having to wait for the culturing of colonies of such cells. The broader/commercial impact of this project is that it can be used in diverse applications in medicine and biomedical research, such as drug susceptibility and pathogen diagnosis technique. Currently, the diagnosis of many infectious diseases is accomplished by culturing a sample of the suspect pathogen, staining the sample and observing the sample under a microscope. For slow growing bacteria such as Mycobacteria tuberculosis (TB), the necessity of waiting 4-6 weeks for culturing and diagnosis delays the treatment, furthering the spread of disease, and exacerbating the growing threat of drug-resistant strains. If successful, the device is targeted to have the capability of speeding the TB diagnosis and treatment to hours, rather than weeks, by directly identifying the pathogen and the optimum course of treatment to be administered to the infected individual. The technique has broad applications including directly assessing antibiotic compounds, drug promoters and inhibitors, cancer treatments as well as immune and allergic responses.