Lab-on-a-chip Flow Cytometer Using COlor-Space-Time (COST) Coding Method

描述（由申请人提供）：流式细胞术（FACS）或流式细胞术使临床医生和研究人员能够定量表征细胞的物理（细胞大小、形状、粒度）和生化（DNA含量、细胞周期分布、细胞表面标志物和活力）特性。由于流式细胞仪具有高通量分选以富集生物样本和提取稀有细胞类型的能力，因此可以进行稀有事件研究，例如细菌细胞、干细胞、肿瘤细胞的鉴定或分离。然而，目前检测多种颜色和分选细胞的流式细胞仪是昂贵的（约50万美元），复杂的，危险的，大而笨重的。由于这些原因，流式细胞仪通常在实验室之间共享，导致样品处理和调度的冲突。随着市场的不断增长，预计到2015年将超过30亿美元，流式细胞术可以解决各种生物医学挑战。然而，没有任何实验室能够负担得起的具有细胞分选能力的高性能流式细胞仪。尽管对经济型细胞分选仪的需求不断增加，但流式细胞术行业在当前技术及其发展路径上面临着根本性的限制。当前的系统架构在适应和充分利用日益增加的可用荧光颜色、灵敏度、易用性和分选能力方面效率极低。我们提出了一种可访问的，负担得起的，高性能的流式细胞术技术，将允许任何科学家在自己的实验室进行细胞分析和分选。在这个实验室到市场的第二阶段计划中，我们建议大幅改善我们的流式细胞仪细胞分选平台，WOLF细胞分选仪，包括扩展荧光检测的动态范围，实施真实的时间细胞分选验证，扩大芯片批量生产，并与早期采用者（如诱导多能干细胞研究人员）一起验证系统，这些研究人员对我们系统的独特功能感到兴奋。这些技术和商业目标将对人类健康和疾病的基础研究和临床应用产生直接影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Fluorescence-activated-cell-sorting (FACS) or flow cytometry enables clinicians and researchers to quantitatively characterize the physical (cell size, shape, granularity) and biochemical (DNA content, cell cycle distribution, cell surface markers, and viability) properties of cells. With the capability of high-throughput sorting to enrih biospecimens and extract rare cell types, a state-of-the-art flow cytometer makes it possible to conduct rare-event studies such as the identification or isolation of bacterial cells, stem cells, r tumor cells. However, current flow cytometers that detect multiple colors and sort cells are expensive (~$500K), complicated, hazardous, large and bulky. For these reasons, flow cytometers are often shared amongst labs, leading to conflicts in sample handling and scheduling. With a growing market expected to reach over $3 billion by 2015, flow cytometry can address a diverse array of biomedical challenges. However, there are no high performance flow cytometers with cell sorting capabilities that are affordable for any lab. Despite the increasing demand for affordable cell sorters, the flow cytometry industry faces fundamental limits in the current technology and its evolutionary path. The current system architectures are highly inefficient in accommodating and fully utilizing the increasing number of available fluorescent colors, sensitivity, ease of use, and sorting capabilities. We propose an accessible, affordable, and high performance flow cytometry technology that will allow any scientist to perform cell analysis and sorting in their own laboratory. In this Lab-to-Market Phase II program, we propose to dramatically improve our flow cytometric cell sorting platform, the WOLF Cell Sorter, including extending the dynamic range of the fluorescent detection, implementing real time cell sorting verification, expanding chip volume manufacturing, and validating the system with early adopters such as induced pluripotent stem cell researchers excited by the unique features of our system. These technology and business goals will have a direct impact on basic research and clinical applications in human health and disease.