STTR Phase I: High throughput aligned nanofiber multiwell plates for glioblastoma research

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在解决高通量，具有成本效益的研究工具的未满足需求，以模拟癌细胞的转移。提出的研究目标是（1）发现具有成本效益的，商业上可扩展的方法，允许在96孔板格式中生产对齐的纳米纤维，以及（2）通过监测粘附的胶质瘤细胞系的迁移来验证纤维对齐是足够的。通过更好地理解和控制被称为静电纺丝的静电驱动过程，该公司可以将当前的原型转换为全面的制造。高通量细胞培养迁移试验的供应将使研究人员能够了解转移的过程。预计这项工作的结果将是更快，更有效的药物开发来治疗脑癌。一旦建立了允许安全和完全可再现制造的生产条件，预计该技术将扩展到其他类型的癌症和组织工程领域。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力在于，拟议的研究将提供一种具有成本效益的高通量创新工具，使研究人员能够以前所未有的方式研究脑肿瘤。更准确的胶质瘤迁移模型具有更好的预测能力和更高的翻译潜力，将有助于开发更有效的治疗方法。目前用于恶性脑肿瘤的外科手术不能去除与原发性肿瘤相关的所有细胞，并且这些癌细胞迁移到周围组织中，在那里它们逃避检测和当前治疗，导致继发性肿瘤形成和接近100%的患者死亡率。 提出的多孔板工具将使药物研究能够确定调节胶质瘤细胞迁移的关键因素，可能有助于设计针对这些毁灭性肿瘤的广泛有效疗法和药物。如果这项工作中提出的生物学验证和制造规模扩大是成功的，这种新工具将具有强大的商业潜力，因为它将为研究人员提供以前未实现的方法来研究广泛的癌症和疾病。 由于细胞/组织培养用品市场（包括拟议的研究工具）预计到2012年全球将达到49.7亿美元，因此存在额外的强大商业潜力（全球行业分析师）。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to address the unmet need for high-throughput, cost-effective research tools to model the metastasis of cancer cells. The proposed research objectives are to (1) discover cost-effective, commercially scalable methods allowing the production of aligned nanofibers in a 96-well plate format and (2) verify that the fiber alignment is sufficient by monitoring the migration of adherent glioma cell lines. By creating a better understanding and control over the electrostatically driven process known as electrospinning, the company can transition current prototypes into full-scale manufacturing. A supply of high throughput cell culture migration assays will allow researchers to understand the process of metastasis. It is anticipated that a result of this work will be faster and more effective drug development to treat brain cancer. Extension of this technology to other types of cancer and areas of tissue engineering is anticipated once production conditions allowing safe and fully reproducible manufacturing are established. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is that the proposed studies will provide a cost-effective, high-throughput and innovative tool allowing researchers to study brain tumors in ways never before possible. More accurate models of glioma migration having better predictive power and higher translational potential will help develop more effective treatments. Current surgical procedures for malignant brain tumors cannot remove all of the cells associated with the primary tumor and these cancer cells migrate into the surrounding tissue where they evade both detection and current therapies, leading to secondary tumor formation and nearly 100% patient mortality. The proposed multi-well plate tool will enable pharmaceutical research identifying key factors regulating glioma cell migration, potentially helping devise a broad range of effective therapies and drugs against these devastating tumors. If the biological validation and manufacturing scale-up proposed in this work are successful, there will be a strong commercial potential for this novel tool as it will provide previously unrealized approaches for researchers to investigate a broad range of cancers and diseases. Additional strong commercial potential exists as the cell/tissue culture supplies market (which includes the proposed research tool) is expected to reach $4.97 billion globally by 2012 (Global Industry Analysts).