MICROWAVE-ENHANCED LUMINESCENCE TO DETECT GROWTH FACTORS

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): "Microwave Chemiluminescence"(MCL) is a broad new enabling technology that promises to greatly improve the speed and convenience of numerous types of chemiluminescence (CL)-based analyses. MCL is the first use of targeted microwave chemistry in the field of bioanalyses. Microchip-based MCL assays combine the exquisite specificity of antibodies or hybridized nucleic acids with the focused heat energy of microwave radiation. Microwaves raise the temperature of the microchip surface, initiating and greatly accelerating the rates of surface-bound CL reporter reactions. MCL instrumentation and chips will be developed for the overall goal of increasing the productivity of cancer research. In Phase I, we will demonstrate the technology using TNFalpha as the first immunoassay analyte. Further research, Phases II and III, will focus on multi-analyte panels measuring angiogenic growth factors. Studies of angiogenesis are critical to the understanding and treatment of solid tumors and such panels using MCL detection will fill an unmet need in cancer research laboratories. Moreover, an angiogenesis factor panel is a logical entry point to our long-term goal of greatly expanded arrays of cancer-related analytes, including endogenous angiogenesis inhibitors, growth factor receptors, and signal transduction proteins. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: The overall research objective is to develop a new analytical technology that will assist cancer researchers by bringing the sensitivity chemiluminescence sensitivity to a convenient microchip array format. A panel of chip-based immunoassays for angiogenesis factors will be developed to assist basic and clinical researchers in cancer research and drug discovery. Future work will expand the technology to other applications in protein and nucleic acid analysis.