The screening of a complex mixture of analytes is not always successful in sensitive screens for specific activities. Often, specific activities are masked by interfering compounds or false positives are given by ubiquitous compounds that interact with all screens. This problem can be resolved by purification of the analytes. Such an approach is not only cost-prohibitive but will also result in biasing the isolation of analytes tha occur in higher concentrations. Conventional organic solvents are not always ideal for biomass extractions. These solvents can be difficult to remove from the compounds potentially exhibiting bioactivity and, thus can mask bioactivity in an assay. In order to enhance the drug and dietary supplement discovery process, we have developed and patented processes for the polarity-guided fractionation of plants and microbes (Castor et al., 1998, 2003) using supercritical fluid solvents. The overall goal of this research project is to develop a commercial, user-friendly SuperFluidsTM CXF fractionator that can be utilized by researchers at universities and pharmaceutical companies to facilitate the drug discovery and nutraceutical product development process. The primary Phase I object is to design a parallel processing CXF fractionator, and to construct and test a single unit CXF prototype that can process samples in accordance to a pre-defined sequentially increasing-polarity protocol. The unit will have the capability to rapidly produce partially purified natural product molecules from terrestrial plants and marine microorganisms, for example, 6 varying polarity fractions in about 1 hour. In Phase I, we plan to design SuperFluidsTM CXF prototypes, construct key components of the prototypes, and test these components. In Phase II, we plan to complete the hardware and software design of the SuperFluidsTM fractionation unit, assemble single and parallel processing Alpha-site units, test the units at a Beta-site, and redesign and reconstruct as necessary to eliminate bugs and increase user-friendliness. In Phase III, OEM companies will manufacture commercial units. In Phase III, we plan to sell SFS fractionation units, which will include license to utilize the SFS-CXF technologies and equipment, to researchers and product developers at universities as well as nutraceutical, food, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
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