SBIR Phase II: High-Throughput Specific Cell Loading by Optoinjection

This SBIR Phase II project proposes to develop a novel technology for laser-enabled analysis and processing (LEAP) of living cells. The ability to load cells with compounds is critical in many areas of research and medicine such as drug discovery and gene therapy. Current methods have limitations with respect to specificity, efficiency, toxicity, and/or throughput. Optoinjection is a novel and versatile procedure for cell loading that has been demonstrated in a few laboratories. Unfortunately, this is a slow, laborious procedure carried out on specialized microscopes. Oncosis has developed the LEAP platform for high-speed cell imaging and purification via lethal laser effects on unwanted cells. Phase I results demonstrated feasibility for using the LEAP platform to implement optoinjection in a high-throughput, cell-specific manner that would enable the commercialization of this novel form of cell loading. Phase II studies are proposed to optimize and implement optoinjection in biologically relevant experimental systems, resulting in data supporting this powerful new tool for the analysis and manipulation of living cells within a physiological environment. The instrument design will then be configured for successful commercial manufacturing, and further improvements in capabilities will be pursued in order to maintain market leadership and to expand into other markets. The commercial application of this project is in the areas of cell-based life science research and drug discovery. Over $ 2.6 billion was spent during 2001 on research instrumentation in academic life science research and commercial drug discovery, and growth to $ 5.3 billion by 2005 has been forecasted. For the specific application of optoinjection, LEAP provides many advantages over current techniques including simplicity, robustness, efficiency, speed, high viability, and specificity. The commercial opportunity for this platform is therefore significant, as is the scientific enablement of experimentation that is not currently possible.