SBIR Phase I: Biomolecular Cell Injection With Nanofountain Probe Systems

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在开发和商业化一种基于纳米峰探针（NFP）技术的具有成本效益的细胞注射系统。 NFP最近已用于研究药物输送和直接细胞注射。 该方法的优点包括易于与现有基础设施集成、强制控制注射以及能够将注射体积控制在皮升水平。 注射大量细胞对于药物发现和相关的大规模基因组和蛋白质组学研究是必要的。这些研究需要将药物、缀合的纳米颗粒、DNA、siRNA和蛋白质递送到活细胞中，以研究细胞内的空间和时间分子调节机制。考虑到活细胞的微妙性质，这样的任务是不平凡的。对于直接药物递送，基于微量移液管的注射已经使用多年。然而，它的活力（细胞存活）和缺乏自动化限制了它的广泛应用。在该项目中，将基于利用探针细胞力控制和NFP的流体处理能力开发单细胞注射系统。 该系统具有并行细胞注射和最终自动化操作的潜力，这将大大提高作为研究实验室和制药公司细胞注射的主力工具的可行性。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种用于高通量单细胞药物递送的新平台，允许有效评估药物疗效以及开发诊断和下一代治疗方法。 纳米技术在医学上的应用（称为纳米医学）为医疗保健提供了许多新兴的机会，特别是考虑到对体外毒理学和诊断的需求日益增加，这是实现“个性化医疗”的途径。 将药物递送到单个细胞并监测相关途径是大多数体外诊断和毒理学研究的核心。 个性化医疗将需要系统地整合来自个人的遗传信息，以优化预防和治疗护理，以及更有效的生物医学工具。 该平台的商业化将允许研究中心和制药公司在奋进实现以患者为中心的医疗保健系统时获得最先进的纳米技术工具。 此外，新的单细胞注射系统将在美国各大学的实验室中得到应用，让下一代科学家了解纳米技术及其对医学的影响。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project aims at developing and commercializing a cost-effective cell injection system based on nanofountain probe (NFP) technology. The NFP has been recently used to investigate drug delivery and direct cell injection. Benefits of this method include easy integration with existing infrastructure, force control of injection, and the ability to control injection volumes at the picoliter level. Injection of large number of cells is necessary for drug discovery and associated large scale genomic and proteomic studies. Such studies require delivery of drugs, conjugated nanoparticles, DNA, siRNA, and proteins into living cells to study spatial and temporal molecular regulatory mechanisms within the cell. Considering the delicate nature of living cells, such a task is nontrivial. For direct drug delivery, micropipette based injection has been used for many years. However, its viability (cell survival) and lack of automation limit its broad use. In this project, a single cell injection system will be developed based on leveraging probe-cell force control and fluidic handling capabilities of NFPs. The system has the potential for parallel cell injection and ultimately automated operation, which would greatly enhance viability as a workhorse tool for cell injection in research labs and pharmaceutical companies. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is the development of a new platform for high throughput single cell drug delivery, allowing for efficient evaluation of drug efficacy and the development of diagnostics and next generation therapeutics. The application of nanotechnology to medicine (termed nanomedicine) has provided numerous emerging opportunities in healthcare, particularly given the increasing demand for in vitro toxicology and diagnostics as a pathway towards "personalized medicine". Drug delivery to individual cells and monitoring of associated pathways is at the core of most research toward in vitro diagnostics and toxicology. Personalized medicine will require the systematic incorporation of genetic information from individuals in optimizing preventive and therapeutic care, and much more efficient biomedical tools. Commercialization of this platform would allow research centers and pharmaceutical companies to have access to state-of-the-art nanotechnology tools in their endeavor toward a patient-centered health care system. Furthermore, the new single cell injection system will find utility in laboratories in universities across the U.S., exposing the next generation of scientists to nanotechnology and its impact on medicine.