Primorigen Biosciences will use Phase I SBIR funds to develop a frameless, multiplexed, microarray screening system for rapid identification and characterization of antibody matched pairs with appropriate affinity and specificity for target proteins. This system produces improved assay content and dramatically reduces the time and cost of multiplexed microarray development. The core of this new system is Primorigen's novel frameless microarray device for multiplexed analysis that allows testing of 96 (or 384) samples against several binding targets directly on a flat array surface. As a result, dozens of proteins in hundreds of samples can be detected with high precision to generate thousands of data points per experiment, increasing speed of screening. While the new system can be adapted to detect any protein, this Phase I project will focus on detecting human pancreatic beta cell markers useful for characterizing insulin-secreting cell lines that may be candidates to treat or cure Type 1 diabetes. The Phase I project will develop a frameless nitrocellulose assay surface and use the miniaturized array methods to screen and characterize antibodies that detect the target proteins. Phase II will a) validate these assays for commercial use, b) develop manufacturing protocols, and c) apply this system to cell differentiation markers.
