Rare-event imaging has profound implications for the early identification of potentially correctable terminal diseases, especially for cancer. What is required is a highly accurate """"""""routine"""""""" test to be given to all patients, not just to those deemed at risk. This requires not only a highly accurate and repeatable process, but also a reasonably fast and inexpensive one. The development of an automated rare-event detection and imaging system designed to recognize cancer cells (or other rare event cells) that appear at low frequencies using immunocytochemistry via novel fluorescent double-staining procedures has begun in the fast track SBIR program, Sciperio Inc., in consultation with Dr. Lan Bo Chen from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, proposes ultimately to develop a total systems solution that is over one hundred times more efficient than state-of-the-art immunocytochemical detection processes. The enhanced system incorporates superior imaging and recognition of fluorescently conjugated antibodies to tag specific cells (Phase II), and novel methods for cell adhesion and detection onto inexpensive slides (Phase I). For Phase I, the approach is centered upon a progressive method by which to immobilize fluidic samples onto inexpensive, specially prepared adhesive slides. A standard scanning fluorescence microscope and charge-coupled device detector will be used in Phase I to generate the resulting fluorescence images. These advances are anticipated to improve the speed capabilities of the process by over 100x and, thereby, decrease costs considerably.
