SBIR Phase I: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy for Subcellular Imaging

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of a nuclear magnetic resonance force microscope (NMRFM) that will make it possible for the first time ever to routinely image intracellular diffusion properties, relaxation times, and hydrogen densities of live cells with sub-optical spatial resolution, down to a volume resolution of 0.1 micron on a side. The hypothesis is that an NMRFM technique can be used for NMR-based imaging of living eucaryotic and procaryotic cells with sub-optical resolution, thereby allowing measurement of diffusion properties, relaxation times, and hydrogen (proton-spin) densities of the cell itself and its larger internal structures (e.g. nucleus, cytoplasm, plasma membrane, and mitochondria). The commercial applications of this project will be in the research instrumentation market. Prospective customers include biologists, medical researchers, clinical practitioners, and others interested in functional and structural imaging of living cells and acellular tissue samples.