MOLECULAR EXPRESS, INC — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: The long term goal of this proposal is the development of a commercial point-of-care devic
MOLECULAR EXPRESS, INC — SBIR Phase I award from Department of Health and Human Services.
- Amount
- $197,673
- Agency
- Department of Health and Human Services · National Institutes of Health
- Program / Phase
- SBIR · Phase I
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- CA
- Period
- —
Description
The long term goal of this proposal is the development of a commercial point-of-care device capable of electronically sensing single circulating tumor cells (CTC) in the peripheral blood of a cancer patient. The viratrode is a nanotechnology platform thatrepresents a significant technological advance. It contains an electrode-based biosensor and can provide an inexpensive format for point-of-care diagnosis with high sensitivity. The viratrode incorporates a bioaffinity layer consisting of a kelp forest of filamentous phage particles, in which each particle can display multiple ligands to a particular cancer cell surface marker. This format maximizes specificity and affinity, while minimizing biofouling. The viratrode incorporates a sensitive area detectorcapable of detecting single digit or lower nM concentrations of biomarkers. Our Technical Objectives focus on constructing viratrodes for detecting prostate cancer CTC s. Our target markers include PSA, PSMA, PSCA, and?v?3 intergrins. The viratrodes will be optimized for the recognition and real-time electrical detection of prostate cancer cells that express the target markers in a biologically relevant fluid matrix.