SBIR Phase I: Magnetic Quantum Dots for Cell Separation and Characterization

This SBIR phase I project will develop new reagents to enable cell separation and analysis. Cell separation is a $3.9 billion/yr market with applications in medicine, pharmaceutical, and biological research industries. However, many current schemes perform cell separation and analysis in separate steps. A single reagent that could perform both functions would save time and money, enhancing these industries. The nanoparticle reagent developed by this research possesses magnetic properties to enable cell separation, and fluorescent properties that allow properties of separated cells to be quantified. This research will optimize this product and demonstrate proof-of-concept against the current standard approaches. The proposed product is the result of basic research previously funded by the NSF into methods to combine magnetic and fluorescent reagents, and optimization of this reagent will yield basic knowledge in manufacture and scale-up of these nanomaterials. Successful completion of these goals will lead to a new product that will enable cell separation and analysis with a single reagent, enabling cell separation with high purity and increasing signal used for quantification. These benefits could translate into reduced laboratory healthcare costs with increased diagnostic efficiency, improved pharmaceutical purity, and high tech nanomanufacturing jobs in this burgeoning industry. This research will develop magnetic-fluorescent nanoparticle reagents to enable seamless cell separation and subsequent flow cytometry analysis. Cell separation is often performed with magnetic reagents that enable high throughput; however, analysis of the separated product is performed in a separate step, typically via flow cytometry. The use of large magnetic beads for separation prevents analysis, as the beads employed are much larger than the protein quantified. Even if small nanoparticles are used, a separate reagent is required for analysis, and signal is limited as the same receptors are targeted for both separation and analysis steps. Thus, a reagent that could perform both separation and analysis steps would improve performance. This research will optimize nanoparticle reagents that enable separation and analysis and compare their performance to the current approach using two separate reagents. Thus, this research will demonstrate crucial proof-of-concept of these reagents that are manufactured using a scalable process, enabling rapid transition to beta testing and follow-on commercialization.