Electrically biased terahertz chemical microscope (Market Assessment)

目前的提案旨在对INRS开发的一项新技术——电偏太赫兹化学显微镜（EB-TCM）进行市场评估，该技术旨在提高带电分子和微生物的灵敏度和选择性。太赫兹（THz）辐射源和探测器在光谱学、探测和安全领域具有许多重要的潜在应用。然而，太赫兹吸收光谱的复杂性限制了太赫兹光谱在已知成分的非水样品中的应用。为了克服这些挑战，一种利用太赫兹辐射监测化学反应的工具被开发出来，称为太赫兹化学显微镜（TCM）。然而，中药的实际形式仍然面临着一个重大挑战：缺乏提高其检测灵敏度和特异性的方法，如分子、细胞和细菌。通过我们的发明，我们能够通过使用时变偏置电压来解决这个问题，这增加了TCM对带电分子和微生物的选择性和灵敏度。通过控制偏压波形，这种EB-TCM将有效地检测表面自然带负电荷的细胞和细菌，以及在生物学和医学中具有重要意义的多种分子，如dna和RNA。此外，EB-TCM还可用于改善药物发现，从而对制药行业产生重大影响，仅加拿大的年度研发支出就高达8.7亿美元（2017年）。目前的发明也可能对适配体市场产生积极影响，预计到2023年该市场将达到4.4亿美元。众所周知，适体的开发是非常耗时的，并且在开发高亲和力的适体时总是存在失败的风险。当前的发明可能有助于克服这些挑战，从而加速适体市场的增长，加拿大将成为主要参与者。

The current proposal aims to perform a market assessment of a new technique developed at the INRS, theElectrically Biased Terahertz Chemical Microscope (EB-TCM), which aims to improve the sensitivity andselectivity of charged molecules and microbes. Terahertz (THz) radiation sources and detectors have manyimportant potential applications in the areas of spectroscopy, detection, and security. However, its strongabsorption by water, and the complicated nature of absorption spectra in the THz regime has limited the use ofTHz spectroscopy to non-aqueous samples with well-known composition. To overcome these challenges, a toolhas been developed that uses THz radiation to monitor chemical reactions, known as the THz ChemicalMicroscope (TCM). However, the TCM in its actual form still faces a major challenge : the lack of methods toimprove its detection sensitivity and specificity to targets, such as molecules, cells and bacteria.With our invention, we were able to resolve this problem by using a time varying bias voltage, which increasesthe selectivity and sensitivity of the TCM to charged molecules and microbes. By controlling the waveform ofthe bias voltage, such an EB-TCM would be effective in detecting cells and bacteria, whose surface is naturallynegatively charged, as well as multiple molecules of significant importance in biology and medicine, such asDNA and RNA. Further, the EB-TCM could also be used to improve drug discovery, thereby havingsignificant impact on the pharmaceutics industry, whose annual R&D expenditures are $870 million in Canadaalone (2017). The current invention could also positively impact the aptamer market, which is expected toreach US$ 440 million by 2023. Aptamer development is known to be highly time consuming, and alwayscarrying the risk of failure in developing aptamers with high affinity. The current invention may contribute inovercoming such challenges, thus accelerating the growth of the aptamer market, with Canada emerging as amajor player.