SBIR Phase II: Rubbed Protein Substrates for Low Cost Biochips Based on Liquid Crystals

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project proposes to develop an entirely new class of biochips, with a particular focus on biochips designed to track the expression, activation and post-translational modification of proteins involved in cell signaling processes. The technology is based on the use of liquid crystals to image biomolecular interactions at structured surfaces. The goal of this Phase II Project is to demonstrate the substrates for liquid crystal-based biochips that detect activated states of proteins and that can be prepared from mechanically rubbed films of protein (that are) covalently attached to glass substrates. Important issues of non-specific binding, binding of activated states of specific target proteins, sample delivery, sensitivity and quantitation will be addressed. These results, when combined with the results of the Phase I research, will make possible the determination of the extent to which cell signaling proteins are activated within biological samples (eg. in cell lysates). The commercial applications of this project will be in the areas of proteomics and in vitro diagnostics. The development of the proposed technology will allow for rapid, inexpensive, multi-target, high-throughput analysis of proteins and their modification states.