SBIR Phase I: High throughput microfluidic cell injection for cell reprogramming

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project supports research aimed at developing a new technology to deliver material into living cells. Delivery of material into living cells is a limiting step in a number of biological applications and innovative therapeutic approaches, including stem cells based therapy and regenerative medicine. In this project a novel technology to allow high throughput delivery of any type of molecule into any type of cell is explored. In this innovative system, living cells are lined up by flowing them in a microfluidic channel and the material to be delivered is shot on the cells with a miniaturized fluid jet that carries the molecules of interest. The broader impacts of this research are expected in the field of stem cell research and stem cell-based therapy. In particular, this microfluidic based system has the potential to boost the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) , the rising star in the field of regenerative medicine, by eliminating the intracellular delivery problems that currently make generation of these cells extremely inefficient. Besides helping the biomedical community in realizing the commercial potential of iPS, the availability of the new intracellular delivery technology could benefit many different fields of biology, ranging from molecular biology to pharmaceutical research, and enable a number of new research applications.