SBIR Phase II: Enabling Technologies for Noninvasive Oxygen Imaging in Regenerative Medicine

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will address a major hindrance in developing efficient artificial tissues and organs designed to solve multiple health issues. Currently, poor oxygen and nutrient delivery at the core of the artificial tissues is one of the major causes of graft implantation failure. The public health benefit of replacing damaged tissues and organs is at par with curing cancer. Almost every part of the human body has been considered a candidate for tissue engineering that strives to solve many medical problems such as arthritis, Type I diabetes, stroke, vascular diseases, liver and kidney damages, etc. The technologies developed in this project will assist in the quality control of artificial tissues. This project will serve the preclinical imaging market with a dedicated oxygen imaging instrument. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop technologies to address a significant shortcoming in developing artificial tissue grafts and organs. Tissue engineering regenerative medicine (TERM) is the fastest growing branch of medicine. TERM aims at the replacement or regeneration of damaged cells, tissues, or organs with artificial cell replacement devices, tissue grafts or organs, to restore normal biological function. However, the dream of artificial tissue has not been realized because of the lack of technologies that can provide maps of physiological parameters such as oxygen. The project will develop new enabling technologies for oxygen imaging in biomaterials, multi-well plate, and macro-encapsulation devices. The project will also manufacture the oxygen sensitive spin probe. It is expected that three-dimensional noninvasive oxygen imaging of tissue grafts and cell encapsulation devices will pave the way for off-the-shelf artificial tissue grafts and organs and make tissue manufacturing a reality. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.