STTR Phase II: High Throughput Aligned Nanofiber Multiwell Plates for Glioblastoma Research

这个小企业技术转移第二阶段项目寻求解决对高通量、成本效益高的工具来模拟脑癌细胞转移的未得到满足的需求。拟议的第二阶段工作将实现广泛采用所需的三个关键目标：1)在多孔板生产过程中消除粘合剂的使用；2)利用Stergenics伽马辐射设施实施FDA批准的灭菌程序；3)额外的生物数据提供我们的产品与市场上已有产品的正面比较，同时还为这项技术在脑癌临床治疗中的制药应用创造市场“拉力”。高通量细胞培养迁移分析的供应将使研究人员能够以前所未有的方式了解和治疗癌症转移。预计该项目的结果将是更快、更有效地开发治疗脑癌和其他转移性癌症的药物。一旦生产条件完全建立，这项技术有望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/商业潜力是，它将提供更好的、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。目前治疗脑部恶性肿瘤的手术方法不能去除所有与原发肿瘤相关的细胞，这些癌细胞迁移到周围组织，在那里它们躲避了检测和当前的化疗，导致了继发性肿瘤的形成和几乎100%的患者死亡。多孔板体外迁移分析将使药物研究能够确定调控胶质瘤细胞迁移的关键因素，可能有助于设计出针对这些毁灭性肿瘤的广泛有效的治疗方法和药物。如果这种最初形式的高通量运动性分析成功，它将为来自胶质瘤治疗和癌症以外的各种背景的研究人员提供一种创新的工具。此外，由于到2012年全球细胞/组织培养用品市场预计将达到49.7亿美元，存在着强大的商业潜力；这一市场包括拟议的消耗品研究工具。

This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase II project seeks to address the unmet need for high-throughput, cost effective tools to model the metastasis of brain cancer cells. The proposed Phase II work will achieve three key objectives necessary for broad adoption: 1) eliminating the use of adhesive during multiwell plate production, 2) implement FDA-approved sterilization procedures utilizing the Sterigenics gamma radiation facility, and 3) additional biological data providing both a head-to-head comparison of our products to those already on the market while also creating a market "pull" for the pharmaceutical application of this technology in clinical treatments of brain cancer. A supply of high-throughput cell culture migration assays will allow researchers to understand and treat cancer metastasis in ways never before possible. It is anticipated that a result of this project will be faster and more effective drug developments to treat brain cancer and other metastasizing cancers. Extension of this technology to other types of cancer and areas of tissue engineering is anticipated once production conditions are fully established.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is that it will provide improved, more accurate models of glioma migration having better predictive power and higher translational potential. 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 chemotherapies, leading to secondary tumor formation and nearly 100% patient mortality. A multi-well plate in vitro migration assays 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 this initial form of high-throughput motility assay is successful, it will provide an innovative tool appropriate for researchers from a large variety of backgrounds beyond both glioma treatments and cancer. Additionally, strong commercial potential exists as the cell/tissue culture supplies market is expected to reach $4.97 billion globally by 2012; this market includes the proposed consumable research tool.