NANOHMICS INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: DHP14-005

Description

Bioassays employed to assess the diverse range of toxicity associated with organ injury are time-consuming, costly and require multiple instruments and testing formats (i.e. fluorescence-based capture, ELISAs, PCR, etc.) to reach a diagnosis. These platforms are incapable of predicting the onset of irreversible organ (e.g. kidney, liver, heart and lung) tissue injury. If a single multiplexed screening bioassay could be fabricated to assess multiple, pre-clinical biomarkers that are predictive indicators of systemic toxicity, it would significantly reduce the complexity, expense and turnaround time associated rapid injury diagnostics. Research-based microarrays often involve many of the same labeling and amplification steps present in medical diagnostics. One barrier to transitioning microarray technology into multiplex medicinal diagnostics has been the limitations imposed by fluorescence/optical-based labeling and endpoint detection. To overcome these limitations, Nanohmics Inc., an early stage biotechnology and sensor development company, proposes the development of a multiplexed diagnostic platform based on direct electrical detection of pre-clinical and eventually clinical toxicity biomarkers for predictive tissue injury.