SBIR Phase I: Development of arrays to record dynamic interactions between single cells

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to enable experts in the biomedical field to improve understanding of how new therapeutic approaches are developed and perform in the context of a complex immune system. This technology could enable new therapies to translate to patients faster, at less expense, and with higher rates of success. These therapeutics, such as antibodies, cell and gene therapies, and vaccines, can deliver excellent results when they work, but available therapies do not work for all patients. To develop and deliver the next generation of therapies to improve the lives of patients, investigators need to be able to understand how immune cells and other cells move, interact, kill, and survive over time. This project allows researchers, developers, and manufacturing experts to understand the functional performance of new therapies earlier, more completely, and at lower expense. Such single-cell analysis is a multi-billion market among commercial and non-profit markets. The proposed project will develop and rigorously validate a novel array consumable that enables scaling dynamic, single-cell analysis from an early access laboratory to any facility worldwide. Initial design and testing activities for the next generation arrays using non-scalable proof of concept production methodologies have demonstrated the value of the dynamic single-cell functional analysis platform. This project will develop and evaluate two options for producing the arrays, one with an embossing technique and one with a three-dimensional printing technique. Successful completion of this project will support scaling the only platform that can evaluate migration, contact dynamics, killing, survival, subcellular activity, and biomolecule secretion for the same individual cell over time and in high throughput to improve development and delivery of novel therapies faster, with higher rates of success, and at lower expense. 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.