SBIR-STTR Award

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I Project proposes to design and construct a novel cell-based microfluidic platform for the discovery and development of therapeutic drugs. Utilizing state-of-the-art microfabrication techniques, micro-sensor and controller design, fluid handling and cell culturing techniques, the project seeks to address the shortcomings and bottlenecks of current biopharmaceutical drug discovery and development processes. The specific project objectives include the design and fabrication of micro-scale bioreactors for microbial and mammalian systems as well as the design and construction of a microfluidic cell culture media and gas handling system. These components will be integrated into a highly parallel and completely automated platform of cell culturing devices. These devices have the potential to introduce a new paradigm that would streamline the development of new cellular products for therapeutic applications. The commercial applications of this project will be in the area of drug discovery and development. Automation and parallelization of the drug discovery process will allow for increased efficiency in drug time to market as well as offer the opportunity to extend research efforts to areas that had previously been limited by manpower constraints

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will complete the development of the microscale bioreactor platform as a useful tool for cell culture studies in drug discovery research and development. The Phase II work has three key objectives : (1) to expand the capabilities of the microscale bioreactor to allow for the measurement of pH, dissolved oxygen, and protein titer ; (2) to construct a fully automated bioprocessing cluster tool ; and (3) to demonstrate the cost and speed advantages of the high-throughput approach to bioreactor production of recombinant protein. The commercial application of this project is in the area of cell culture bioreactors for drug discovery and development