| NSF Org: |
TI Translational Impacts |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | December 19, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | December 19, 2017 |
| Award Number: | 1745992 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Ruth Shuman
rshuman@nsf.gov (703)292-2160 TI Translational Impacts TIP Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships |
| Start Date: | January 1, 2018 |
| End Date: | September 30, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $225,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $225,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
333 JACKSON PLZ LAB # 710 ANN ARBOR MI US 48103-1922 (734)673-8405 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
440 Burroughs, Suite 520 Detroit MI US 48202-3429 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | SBIR Phase I |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.084 |
ABSTRACT
The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to develop technology that will substantially reduce the cost and complexity of ribonucleic acid (RNA)-based medical testing. Isolation of RNA from biological samples is the first and often the most difficult step in RNA diagnostic testing. All living things from bacteria to humans are threatened by viral infection and have strong natural defenses; these protein defenses are beneficial to humans but interfere with RNA testing. DNA contamination also interferes with RNA testing. As a result, there is a $2.3B market for reagents to clean-up protein and DNA contamination in RNA samples. The proposed product selectively isolates RNA from samples with near perfect selectivity, eliminating the need for these expensive RNA clean-up reagents. Simplification of the RNA isolation step has the broader impact of allowing for smaller and easier to operate devices that can be deployed to local clinics, allowing for easier and faster testing in point-of-care and rural settings.
This SBIR Phase I project proposes to develop a new carbon-based coating for magnetic beads that selectively isolates RNA from samples with better yield than current products and without DNA or protein contamination. The company has developed a preliminary technology that performs better than competing products when used to isolate RNA from cultured cells. During this Phase I project, the material properties and usage protocols will be optimized to maximize performance in real-world applications, such as isolation of RNA from blood. The material properties as they relate to performance in this application will be studied using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and optimized to maximize selectivity for RNA over contaminating molecules such as DNA and proteins. RNA will be isolated from diverse biological substances such as soft tissue, blood, and cell cultures, and each step in the process will be optimized to maximize yield and RNA integrity (RIN) while maintaining perfect purity as determined by northern blot, fluorescence spectroscopy, and qRT-PCR. The company also will begin to explore a manufacturing system for commercial production of the material.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
RNA isolation is a critical task for every industry related to life science. Discovering new drugs, developing disease resistant crops, and engineering living organisms to perform industrial processes are all activities which require RNA testing during the development process.
RNA is extremely fragile and degrades rapidly. Meaning that with current technology samples must be processed at the test site or shipped at very cold temperatures which requires specialized equipment. This significantly increases drug development costs and is also a significant burden for many medical tests. Diagnosing viral diseases in particular usually requires RNA testing as most viruses are RNA.
The purpose of this project was to develop a new method for isolating RNA. The outcome of this work is the beta product shown in the attached image. The product developed under this award improved RNA yield by 10-50% as compared to competing products and improved RNA purity by 1000x as compared to competing products while maintaining RNA integrity for extended durations at room temperature. With this product, less sample will need to be collected, the cost of analysis will be reduced, and less infrastructure will be required to perform analysis.
The ability to easily isolate RNA from biological samples with high purity and yield will reduce research costs and enable new types of direct-to-consumer RNA tests which can help doctors detect diseases and direct treatment with greater accuracy.
Last Modified: 10/03/2018
Modified by: Kevin V Hagedorn
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