The Hipple Cancer Research Corporation developed patented technology (CapScanTM) for quantitating particles inside microcapillary tubes, includingtumor cell colonies. Hipple also pioneered microcapillary-based hematopoietic assays for human myelotoxicity testing of investigational agents. Automated colony counting would facilitate faster and less expensive myelotoxicity evaluations, keeping pace with modern efficacy screens, (i.e., in vitro cancer cell lines panels), so that new anti-cancer and anti-HIV agents with favorable therapeutic indices, rather than efficacies, would be selected for development. In Phase I we will determine the feasibility of adapting CapScanTM technologies to automated quantitation of colonies of human hematopoietic progenitors (CFU-CM and BFU-E). In Phase II, we will develop the required software and hardware adaptations indicated by the PhaseI research, and extend the automationto murine hematopoietic colonies and to hematopoietic colonies that requirespecial stains fordetection (CFU-Meg). Ifsuccessful, this would mark the first technology developed for automated counting of hematopoietic colonies.With over 10,000 compounds screened each year in anti-cancer drug discoveryprograms, it is obvious that there are numerous opportunities for commercial application of the technology.
