Phase I - A multiplexed next generation platform for cannabinoid detection

大麻产品被广泛用作治疗和娱乐药物。 测量损伤的主要目标是一种名为THC的大麻分子。THC是医疗、体育和执法背景下药物筛查的常见目标。 由于THC损害运动功能，在操作机动车辆或重型机械之前严格禁止使用大麻。 目前，已有检测THC的技术，但成本高、基础设施庞大、样本到答案结果冗长，而且用户界面不友好。 此外，目前所有的技术都只能检测THC，仅凭这一点并不能提供准确的减值评估。 Shih博士和他的实验室开发了一种名为“EMMA-Sense”（基于电化学多平台微流体适体的传感器）的最新技术，使最终用户能够以非常高的灵敏度使用THC的电化学检测。 最终用户可以将他们的唾液注入试管，将他们的唾液注入设备（通过试管），并使用手机在一分钟内检测THC。 我们在掺有THC的真实的唾液样本上取得了很大的成功，然而，这些设备的制造无法大规模生产，也无法检测其他类型的大麻分子。 为了使其成为商业产品，我们需要为我们的设备设计一种可大规模制造的方法，并检测多种大麻分子，而不仅仅是THC。 因此，我们计划通过设计和发现用于感测不同大麻分子的新方法来实现这些目标（在Jonathan Perrault博士的帮助下，INRS），设计可以扩大到大规模生产方法的设备（在StarFish Medical的帮助下），并评估唾液中掺入不同大麻分子的新设备。 我们还将有我们的工业合作伙伴，斯特雷姆生物技术公司，来评估这项技术，并就我们如何提高这项技术的可用性提供反馈。 这些都是关键的步骤，将增加我们的技术价值，并使它为我们的受体公司，斯特雷姆生物技术，谁将潜在的许可和市场的系统做好准备。

Cannabis products are widely used as therapeutic and recreational drugs. The main target to measure impairment is a cannabis molecule called THC. THC is a common target for drug screening in the medical, athletic and law enforcement contexts. Since THC impairs motor functions, cannabis use is strictly prohibited before operating a motor vehicle or heavy machinery. Currently, there are technologies to detect THC but it suffers from high costs, bulky infrastructure, lengthy sample-to-answer results, and not user-friendly. Furthermore, all the current technologies only detect THC, and this alone does not provide an accurate assessment of impairment. A recent technology, called "EMMA-Sense" (Electrochemical Multiplatform Microfluidics Aptamer based Sensor) has been developed by Dr. Shih and his lab to enable end-users to use electrochemical detection of THC with very high sensitivity. End users can provide their saliva into a tube, inject their saliva into the device (via tube), and detect THC in one minute using their cellphone. We showed much success with real saliva samples spiked with THC, however, the fabrication of these devices are not mass manufacturable and it cannot detect other types of cannabis molecules. For this to become a commercial product, we are required to devise a mass manufacturable method for our devices and to detect multiple cannabis molecules, not just THC. Therefore, we plan to achieve these goals by designing and discovering new methods for sensing different cannabis molecules (with the help of Dr. Jonathan Perrault, INRS), design devices that can be scaled-up to mass production methods (with the help from StarFish Medical), and evaluate the new devices with saliva spiked with the different cannabis molecules. We will also have our industrial partner, Strem Biotechnologies, to evaluate the technology and to provide feedback on how we can improve the usability of the technology. These are critical steps that will increase the value of our technology and make it ready for our receptor company, Strem Biotechnology, who will potentially license and market the system.