A Single Cell Multi-Protein Device to Facilitate Cancer Immunotherapy

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant The most promising immunotherapies against cancer rely upon modulating CD and various CD T cells to activate against cancers like melanoma lymphoma and leukemia However the ability for researchers to measure the secreted effector proteins per heterogeneous T cell which determine the cellular potency against the cancer is limited today This Phase SBIR feasibility project proposes advancing the commercialization of a cell capture and single cell protein analysis technology to address pharmaceutical researchers need to monitor patient T cell function and response to therapy The prototype IsoPlexis micro device aims to for the first time gather the large and necessary amounts of secreted protein data at the single immune cell level The IsoPlexis micro device prototype currently helps immunology researchers at Yale University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center detect up to ten times more secreted proteins per heterogeneous immune cell versus the standard flow cytometer Pharmaceutical firms have envisioned using this device to detect mechanism of action at the single cell level as well as potentially detect patient differences in immune competency As referenced in our support letters immunotherapy leaders from Yale Cancer Center and California Institute of Technology are looking forward to using and participating in the development of our prototype device IsoPlexisandapos micro device has the potential to provide this necessary additional functional data to many researchers thus advancing immunotherapy research faster and at a lower cost relative to competitorandapos s expensive instrument technologies The IsoPlexis device is initially targeting the T cell analysis sub segment of a broader $ million market for secreted protein life science research and drug development tools Eventually we hope to pursue much larger scale diagnostic applications for measuring patient immune activity pre and post therapy This Phase project seeks to better determine the commercial feasibility of developing the IsoPlexis cell capture and protein analysis micro device for mass research use using the following specific aims Develop on chip cell enrichment technology to facilitate single cell multi protein analysis of specific T cel subsets Here we apply DNA encoded cell sorting to capture CD and CD for downstream analysis in our IsoPlexis micro device prototype Develop a fully packaged micro device to achieve automated operation and minimum commercial usability We plan to engineer our device overcome key impediments of cell isolation quality of quantitative detection and detection variability Additionally we will pursue a pilot test for Transition to Phase II in thi we will demonstrate minimum validity andamp utility through proof of concept comparator validation analysis of primary T cells Upon completion of these initial improvement goals in Phase II IsoPlexis expects to expand product development of our cell isolation and protein analysis micro device to provide it to the many researchers that could benefit from the tool and to further explore diagnostic applications PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE The proposed Phase SBIR feasibility study is designed to address a rapidly growing need for a device that provides much more secreted protein data per single cell in analyzing T cell activity in cancer immunotherapy This IsoPlexis prototype device will not only provide researchers the ability to measure the many secreted effector proteins per T cell but also will provide upstream isolation of CD and CD cells on chip It also does so in a low cost hand held device especially relative to expensive single cell instruments available today Upon development enabled by this SBIR the IsoPlexis device aims to put its high content single cell isolation and analysis micro device in the hands of many researchers in the pharmaceutical biotechnology and academic research world furthering cancer immunotherapy development