TOPIC #366 - PHASE II SBIR CONTRACT - CLONOGENIC HIGH - THROUGHPUT ASSAY FOR SCREENING RADIATION MODULATION

Clonogenic assays measure the ability of single cells to proliferate and form a colonyThis process approximates closely the regrowth and recurrence of tumors after treatment with radiation or chemotherapyproviding an assay to screen for drugs that block this processYetclonogenic assays are labor intensive and too cumbersome for high throughout screeningHTSof compound librariesHere we propose to develop an HTS system based on a clonogenic endpointThis proposal is based on a completed Phase I contract wherein we successfully generated Head and Neck Cancer cells amenable to miniaturization into multi well format with automated colony countingProof of concept tests using known radiation modulators demonstrate that this system faithfully represents the traditional clonogenic assaysIn the Phase II contractwe will screen through compound librariesgenerate additional cell lines to represent other cancer typesand develop a fully integrated automated system that plates cellsirradiatesexposes them to drugand counts coloniesThis system will be transferrable to other laboratoriesPotential commercial applications include screening libraries for new compounds with the potential to inhibit regrowth of tumors after treatment and to rapidly identify efficacious pair wise combinations among existing oncology agents