SBIR Phase II: Bioelectrical Cell Enrichment, Sorting, and Recovery with On-Chip Sample Prep and Monitoring

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is a label-free, biological sample preparation and cell isolation platform for recovery of rare cells from a variety of sample inputs. Specifically, by carrying out sample preparation, manipulation, and monitoring on a single chip platform for selective cell recovery, the sample handling steps will be greatly reduced, thereby ensuring the maintenance of cell viability, improving sample consistency, and sustaining native cell behaviors. This recovered sample is essential for the development of cell-based therapies in regenerative medicine and cancer management. Personalized medicine also requires precision cell recoveries. This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will develop an electrically functional microfluidic sample manipulation platform for phenotype-selective recovery of cells, based on their biophysical attributes. Specifically, microfluidic designs will be integrated to swap cells from complex biological inputs into an optimized buffer to enable cell manipulation. Also, instrumentation will be developed for on-chip monitoring of the sample during various stages of the phenotype-selective cell recovery process. Further, a variety of sample inputs will be validated on the designed devices to ensure performance, consistency, and reliability for translation into commercial product lines. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.