SBIR Phase I: Design of custom ultrasonic lens for uniform sonication of biological samples in microplates

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is the development of a high-throughput, low-cost solution to alleviate a major bottleneck in genomics and cancer research. Special next-generation sequencing (NGS) workflows have become one of the most important tools for personalized medicine, helping scientists discover new ways to diagnose cancer and other diseases, ultimately improving patient outcomes. While sequencing platforms continue to advance technologically, less attention has been given to improving the necessary and difficult step of fragmenting or shearing genomic DNA (gDNA) to prepare samples for NGS. An estimated 75-80% of work activity in a modern-day analytical lab is spent on processing and preparing samples. The current industry standard for gDNA shearing requires expensive instrumentation (>$150,000), and can require more than 2 hours to serially process 96-samples. Less expensive alternative solutions perform inconsistently, and are not amenable for high-throughput applications. A critical need exists for a high-throughput, low-cost solution for parts of this process. The proposed project is focused on developing a targeted lens technology for a high-throughput, low-cost sonication device. The ultimate goal of this project is to make sample processing for NGS applications inexpensive, consistent, fast, and widely available. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop a transformative solution to inconsistent, costly, and cumbersome sample processing for NGS. The Targeted Multifocal Lens (TML) technology will enable consistent, parallel gDNA shearing of 96 samples in a standard PCR microplate, improving by an order of magnitude both throughput speed and reduced capital costs. The TML technology employs kinoform theory to enable focused sonication of multiple samples using just a single acoustic source, thus eliminating the need for robotic scanning systems. In Phase I, we will design and prototype a novel bath-type sonicator that integrates with the TML technology. We will perform theoretical and experimental modeling and characterization to demonstrate feasibility of TML for consistent sonication of a 96-well microplate. We will finally validate the performance of the prototype sonicator by shearing 96 samples of gDNA in parallel, in under 15 minutes. 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.