Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to design, develop, fabricate, and test a Microchannel Proteomic Array (MPA) system based on proprietary silicon chip fabrication technology and integration of immunodetection amplified by T7 RNA polymerase (IDAT) and fluorescence-in-situ-hybridization (FISH) techniques. The system will provide high throughput, precise isolation, and quantitative analysis of proteins in unpurified samples of body fluids and/or cancer cells, as well as allow carrying out protein-protein and protein-ligand interaction studies. The MPA system will consist of three components: a microarray chip, a POC backlit holographic diffuser screen, and a processing/analyzing subsystem. The chip will have up to 10,000 micro-channels on a 2. 25 cm2 plate surface and the potential to simultaneously assay ten thousand proteins/ oligopepetides in an unpurified sample in hours. The highly sensitive chip combined with a massively parallel, automated analysis array can yield ultrahigh throughput. The microchip will consume only nanoliters of the sample. In Phase I, POC will investigate micro-channel proteomic array system design and architecture to demonstrate proof-of-concept.
