Automated Platform for Fixed Tissue Microdissection

Large banks of archived human tumor tissues including cancer biopsies harbor enormous amounts of disease relevant information that may facilitate development of novel therapeutic approaches and assist in our basic understanding of fundamental biological processesHoweverthe resource is clearly underuseddue to a number of technical challenges associated with the retrieval of molecular information hidden in the RNADNA and proteins locked inside the samplesCurrent microdissection platformsespecially those with single cell resolutionare typically sample specificcomplexexpensiveand overly dependent on manual user intervention at key stepsDespite the needthese limitations make integration within standard lab clinical sample processing workflows difficultRapid celland region specific nucleic acid extraction from formalin fixed tumor biopsies and archived tissue samples is perhaps one of the most desirable and technically challenging applicationsTo facilitate the use of the archived and clinical tissue specimenswe propose to develop an automated platformAutopicK MTMfor high throughput fixed tissue microdissectionAutomatic molecular retrieval from archived and clinical FFPE tissue samples will be based on our recently developed cell and tissue acquisitionCTAStechnologyusing GE s proprietary approach for rapid extraction of histological regions of interestROIsfrom FFPE tissuesImportantlythe collected FFPE ROIs are optimized for direct molecular interrogation and compatible with most enzymatic reactions including protocols used for Next Generation SequencingNGSThe proposed instrument will feature auto calibrationROI auto recognitioncollection and dispensing into multiwell plate formatsOur preliminary studies convincingly demonstrate that sample collection may be performed with cellular resolutionwith a tissue dissociation step that ensures compatibility of isolated DNA with a range of downstream protocols including amplificationlabeling and sequencingAs both NeuroInDx and GEGR technologies can be implemented at low costAutopicK MTM will have a serious price advantage over existing competitorsMoreoverthe new instrument will remain compatible with fresh frozenlive celland fixed single cell samplesmaking the AutopicK MTM the most versatile single cell acquisition and tissue microdissection platform on the marketThis Fast Track application will test all critical parameters of the proposed approach including tissue processing and initial instrument architecture in Phase ICommercial prototype of the proposed instrument and a complete workflow will be developed and validated in Phase II