SBIR-STTR Award

The overall goal of this SBIR effort is to develop commercial small-scale high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy probes to increase throughput via the investigation of multiple samples in a single probe. NMR is utilized extensively by the pharmaceutical and biotecimology industries, but remains one of the very few analytical methods in which parallel data acquisition has not been applied to increase the number of samples that can be simultaneously evaluated. The reasons behind this are intrinsically related to the hardware involved in data acquisition. Recent academic results have shown that some of these limitations can be overcome by the use of small micro coils; Many design issues still remain to make such systems compatible with the narrow bore magnets that are predominant in industrial settings. These issues are addressed in this Phase I effort for purposes of feasibility assessment. This serves as the first step in MRM Corporation's plans to commercialize multi-coil probes. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: The most immediate and obvious potential commercial application is pharmaceutical research, particularly drug discovery. NMR is used extensively in this application area for target analysis, metabolic studies, combinatorial chemistry, and for general structural elucidation. Other industries of application include biotechnology, chemical product research and development, and generally analytical chemical research (government laboratories, universities, etc.)

The overall goal of this SBIR effort is to commercialize a new family of capillary-scale, high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy flowprobes that employ multiple detection cells in a single probe for high throughput. NMR is utilized extensively by the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, but remains one of few analytical methods in which parallel data acquisition has not been applied to increase the number of samples that can be simultaneously evaluated. The reasons behind this are the intrinsically related to the hardware involved in data acquisition. Poor throughput (i.e. relatively long time required for NMR analysis) remains a formidable challenge in drug discovery and development. The company submitting this proposal has a demonstrated track record of using SBIR funding to commercialize novel microcoil (capillary-based) NMR probe technologies. This proposal builds upon the speed and throughput advantages that have been achieved in capillary scale NMR to further advance high throughput screening through multi-sample analysis using a single probe. Technical aspects of both probe design and sample management is addressed. The long-term implications of this technological advance to health and health-related companies, particularly pharmaceutical companies, are significant. The ability to coordinate sample entry, sample exit, and NMR data acquisition for multiple samples in a single magnet/spectrometer/probe system pushes the boundaries of NMR and holds potential to dramatically change the way in which NMR is performed in the future.

Thesaurus Terms:
biomedical equipment development, high throughput technology, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy bioengineering /biomedical engineering