EAGER: Design and Validation of a Point-of-Care Device To Detect Biomarkers of Pain

目前，还没有可供个人使用的POC(Point Of Care)传感平台，可通过直接快速分析生物流体样本中可能存在的关键生物标记物，来监控患者对疼痛、疾病诱因、空气中刺激物、毒素或传染病或癌症复发的生物反应。这种基于生物标记物的诊断技术可能在精确医学中有许多应用，其中包括精确的疼痛管理和减少阿片类药物滥用。该项目将设计、建造和验证一种微流控护理点(POC)设备，该设备将分离、识别和量化作为疼痛标记的细胞因子。该设备将分析所有类型的液体活检中的疼痛生物标记物。这项研究将集中在检测大鼠模型血清中疼痛的生物标记物。细胞因子将在所需的超低浓度下通过与具有荧光标记的靶向多肽序列结合并随后通过等电聚焦(IEF)分离来鉴定。促炎症细胞因子和抗炎细胞因子与痛觉相关，这是公认的事实。因此，建议的POC设备将使疼痛“可量化”，并实现精确的疼痛管理。调查团队将结合神经科学、药物成瘾和疼痛研究(坎宁安博士)、生物光子学和医疗设备开发(莫塔梅迪博士)、微流控技术和IEF设备开发(卡尔伯特森博士)以及生物化学、生物工程和生物光子学(博斯曼博士，PI)所需的专业知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Currently, there are no POC (Point of Care) sensing platforms available to individuals to monitor a patient's biological response to pain, disease triggers, airborne irritants, toxins, or the recurrence of an infectious disease or cancer, by direct and rapid profiling of critical biomarkers that may be present in biofluid samples. Such biomarker-based diagnostics could have numerous applications in precision medicine, among them precision pain management and the reduction of opioid abuse. This project will design, build, and validate a microfluidic point-of-care (POC) device that will separate, identify and quantify cytokines that are markers for pain. The device will analyze biomarkers of pain in all types of liquid biopsies.This research will focus on the detection of biomarkers for pain in the serum of a rat model. The cytokines will be identified at the required ultralow concentrations through binding to targeting peptide sequences featuring fluorescent labels and subsequent separation by means of Isoelectric Focusing (IEF). It is well established that pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines correlate with the perception of pain. Therefore, the proposed POC-device will make pain "quantifiable" and enable precision pain management. The team of investigators will combine the required expertise in neuroscience, drug addiction and pain research (Dr. Cunningham), Biophotonics and medical device development (Dr. Motamedi), microfluidic technology and IEF device development (Dr. Culbertson), and biological chemistry, bioengineering, and Biophotonics (Dr. Bossmann, PI).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.