STTR Phase I: ActivSignal Protein Profiling from Serum Exosomes for the Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer

STTR第一阶段项目将开发一个变革性的平台，用于胰腺癌检测的廉价筛查，该平台基于从少量抽血中分析癌症相关蛋白。 胰腺癌是最致命的癌症类型之一，在美国每年造成超过50，000人死亡，五年生存率低于7%。 然而，目前还没有可靠的胰腺癌诊断测试，绝大多数病例在晚期被发现，因此死亡率很低。 由于癌症从根本上是由关键蛋白质网络的失调驱动的，因此直接测量关键蛋白质的活性为癌症检测提供了强大的生物特征。该项目将开发一种基于广泛蛋白质谱的科学新颖的诊断技术，用于准确和低成本地检测胰腺癌，从而将治疗领域转移到疾病的早期阶段，可以更有效地利用现有治疗方法来改善患者的预后并挽救生命，避免不必要和无效的程序，并在美国和其他地方节省医疗系统成本。该诊断平台的商业化有望带动一家大型企业的创建，并带来相关的就业和税收。该项目的主要创新之处在于，该技术可以监测生物样本中数十种癌症相关蛋白的状态，并应用于从患者的微小样本中诊断胰腺癌。的血。与现有技术相比，该创新平台具有上级的灵敏度和准确性，并且还提供了显著降低的成本，这是诊断应用的关键优势。该项目的进一步创新是开发分析引擎和生物签名知识库，用于分析患者？s蛋白质图谱。 在该项目中，公司将专注于几个关键技术挑战，以开发和验证其胰腺癌检测诊断平台的1. 0版本：i.鉴定胰腺癌的稳健的、分化的多靶生物特征;和ii.在癌症出现和发展的足够早期阶段准确地进行，以在医学上有用。该项目将广泛分析来自胰腺癌和正常患者各个阶段的生物样本库样本，以生成差异化的生物特征，开发诊断预测引擎以匹配生物特征并告知诊断，并使用其他样本验证这些结果。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的支持？该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This STTR Phase I project will develop a transformative platform for inexpensive screening for pancreatic cancer detection, based on profiling of cancer-related proteins from a small blood draw. Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest types of cancer, killing over 50,000 each year in the US, and with a five-year survival rate below 7%. However, currently there are no reliable diagnostic tests for pancreatic cancer, and the great majority of cases are detected at a late stage, with bleak mortality rates as a result. As cancer is driven fundamentally by a dysregulation of key protein networks, directly measuring the activity of key proteins provides a robust bio-signature for cancer detection. The project will develop a scientifically novel diagnostic technology based on broad protein profiling for the accurate and low cost detection of pancreatic cancer, and thereby shift the therapeutic field of battle to an earlier stage of the disease, where the current treatments can be more effectively harnessed to improve patient outcomes and save lives, avoid unnecessary and ineffective procedures, and generate health system cost savings across the US and elsewhere. Commercialization of this diagnostic platform is expected to drive creation of a substantial enterprise, and related employment and tax-revenues.The major innovation of this project is the breakthrough technology for monitoring the state of dozens of cancer-related proteins in biological samples and its application for diagnosing pancreatic cancer from a minute sample of a patient?s blood. The innovative platform has superior levels of sensitivity and accuracy compared to existing technologies, and also offers substantially lower costs, which are critical advantages for the diagnostic application. A further innovation in this project is the development of the analytic engine and the bio-signature knowledge base, that will be used for analysis of the patient?s protein profile. In this project, the Company will focus on several key technical challenges to develop and validate a 1.0 version of its diagnostic platform for pancreatic cancer detection: i. identifying a robust, differentiated multi-target, bio-signature for pancreatic cancer; and ii. doing so with an accuracy and at a sufficiently early stage in the cancer emergence and progression to be medically useful. This project will extensively profile biobank samples from various stages of pancreatic cancer and normal patients to generate the differentiated bio-signatures, develop a diagnosis prediction engine to match the bio-signatures and inform diagnoses, and validate those results using additional samples. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worth of support through evaluations using the Foundation?s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.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.