SBIR Phase I: Magnetic Quantum Dots for Cell Separation and Characterization

SBIR第一阶段项目将开发新的试剂，以实现细胞分离和分析。细胞分离是一个39亿美元/年的市场，应用于医学，制药和生物研究行业。然而，许多当前方案在单独的步骤中进行细胞分离和分析。一种单一的试剂，可以执行这两种功能将节省时间和金钱，加强这些行业。本研究开发的纳米颗粒试剂具有磁性，可以分离细胞，并且具有荧光特性，可以量化分离细胞的特性。这项研究将优化该产品，并针对当前的标准方法进行概念验证。拟议的产品是之前由NSF资助的基础研究的结果，该研究涉及联合收割机结合磁性和荧光试剂的方法，该试剂的优化将产生制造和扩大这些纳米材料的基础知识。这些目标的成功完成将产生一种新产品，该产品将能够使用单一试剂进行细胞分离和分析，从而实现高纯度的细胞分离并增加用于定量的信号。这些好处可以转化为降低实验室医疗保健成本，提高诊断效率，提高药物纯度，并在这个新兴行业的高科技纳米制造工作。这项研究将开发磁性荧光纳米颗粒试剂，使无缝细胞分离和随后的流式细胞术分析。细胞分离通常使用能够实现高通量的磁性试剂进行;然而，分离产物的分析通常通过流式细胞术在单独的步骤中进行。使用大的磁珠进行分离会妨碍分析，因为所用的磁珠比定量的蛋白质大得多。即使使用小的纳米颗粒，也需要单独的试剂进行分析，并且信号受到限制，因为分离和分析步骤都靶向相同的受体。因此，可以执行分离和分析步骤两者的试剂将提高性能。这项研究将优化能够分离和分析的纳米颗粒试剂，并将其性能与使用两种单独试剂的当前方法进行比较。因此，这项研究将证明这些试剂的关键概念验证，这些试剂是使用可扩展的工艺制造的，能够快速过渡到beta测试和后续商业化。

This SBIR phase I project will develop new reagents to enable cell separation and analysis. Cell separation is a $3.9 billion/yr market with applications in medicine, pharmaceutical, and biological research industries. However, many current schemes perform cell separation and analysis in separate steps. A single reagent that could perform both functions would save time and money, enhancing these industries. The nanoparticle reagent developed by this research possesses magnetic properties to enable cell separation, and fluorescent properties that allow properties of separated cells to be quantified. This research will optimize this product and demonstrate proof-of-concept against the current standard approaches. The proposed product is the result of basic research previously funded by the NSF into methods to combine magnetic and fluorescent reagents, and optimization of this reagent will yield basic knowledge in manufacture and scale-up of these nanomaterials. Successful completion of these goals will lead to a new product that will enable cell separation and analysis with a single reagent, enabling cell separation with high purity and increasing signal used for quantification. These benefits could translate into reduced laboratory healthcare costs with increased diagnostic efficiency, improved pharmaceutical purity, and high tech nanomanufacturing jobs in this burgeoning industry.This research will develop magnetic-fluorescent nanoparticle reagents to enable seamless cell separation and subsequent flow cytometry analysis. Cell separation is often performed with magnetic reagents that enable high throughput; however, analysis of the separated product is performed in a separate step, typically via flow cytometry. The use of large magnetic beads for separation prevents analysis, as the beads employed are much larger than the protein quantified. Even if small nanoparticles are used, a separate reagent is required for analysis, and signal is limited as the same receptors are targeted for both separation and analysis steps. Thus, a reagent that could perform both separation and analysis steps would improve performance. This research will optimize nanoparticle reagents that enable separation and analysis and compare their performance to the current approach using two separate reagents. Thus, this research will demonstrate crucial proof-of-concept of these reagents that are manufactured using a scalable process, enabling rapid transition to beta testing and follow-on commercialization.