Development of SFS Fractionators

描述（由申请人提供）：在特定活性的敏感筛选中，复杂分析物混合物的筛选并不总是成功的。通常，特定的活性被干扰性化合物所掩盖，或者被与所有屏幕相互作用的普遍存在的化合物所假阳性。这个问题可以通过纯化分析物来解决。这种方法不仅成本过高，而且还会导致对高浓度分析物的分离产生偏差。传统的有机溶剂并不总是生物质提取的理想选择。这些溶剂很难从可能表现出生物活性的化合物中去除，因此可以掩盖测定中的生物活性。为了加强药物和膳食补充剂的发现过程，我们开发了利用超临界流体溶剂对植物和微生物进行极性引导分离的工艺，并申请了专利（Castor等人，1998,2003）。本研究项目的总体目标是开发一种商业的、用户友好的超流stm CXF分馏仪，供大学和制药公司的研究人员使用，以促进药物发现和营养保健品的开发过程。第一阶段的主要目标是设计一个并行处理的CXF分馏器，并构建和测试一个可以按照预先定义的顺序递增极性协议处理样品的单个CXF原型。该装置将具有从陆生植物和海洋微生物中快速生产部分纯化的天然产物分子的能力，例如，在大约1小时内生产6个不同极性的组分。在第一阶段，我们计划设计superidstm CXF原型，构建原型的关键组件，并测试这些组件。在第二阶段，我们计划完成superidstm分馏单元的硬件和软件设计，组装单个和并行处理alpha站点单元，在beta站点测试单元，并根据需要重新设计和重构以消除错误并增加用户友好性。在第三阶段，OEM公司将生产商用设备。在第三阶段，我们计划向大学以及营养食品、食品、制药和生物技术公司的研究人员和产品开发人员销售SFS分馏装置，其中包括使用SFS- cxf技术和设备的许可。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The screening of a complex mixture of analytes is not always successful in sensitive screens for specific activities. Often, specific activities are masked by interfering compounds or false positives are given by ubiquitous compounds that interact with all screens. This problem can be resolved by purification of the analytes. Such an approach is not only cost-prohibitive but will also result in biasing the isolation of analytes tha occur in higher concentrations. Conventional organic solvents are not always ideal for biomass extractions. These solvents can be difficult to remove from the compounds potentially exhibiting bioactivity and, thus can mask bioactivity in an assay. In order to enhance the drug and dietary supplement discovery process, we have developed and patented processes for the polarity-guided fractionation of plants and microbes (Castor et al., 1998, 2003) using supercritical fluid solvents. The overall goal of this research project is to develop a commercial, user-friendly SuperFluidsTM CXF fractionator that can be utilized by researchers at universities and pharmaceutical companies to facilitate the drug discovery and nutraceutical product development process. The primary Phase I object is to design a parallel processing CXF fractionator, and to construct and test a single unit CXF prototype that can process samples in accordance to a pre-defined sequentially increasing-polarity protocol. The unit will have the capability to rapidly produce partially purified natural product molecules from terrestrial plants and marine microorganisms, for example, 6 varying polarity fractions in about 1 hour. In Phase I, we plan to design SuperFluidsTM CXF prototypes, construct key components of the prototypes, and test these components. In Phase II, we plan to complete the hardware and software design of the SuperFluidsTM fractionation unit, assemble single and parallel processing Alpha-site units, test the units at a Beta-site, and redesign and reconstruct as necessary to eliminate bugs and increase user-friendliness. In Phase III, OEM companies will manufacture commercial units. In Phase III, we plan to sell SFS fractionation units, which will include license to utilize the SFS-CXF technologies and equipment, to researchers and product developers at universities as well as nutraceutical, food, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.