Airborne particulate matter (PM) derived from a variety of natural sources (volcanic activity, forest fires) is omnipresent. However, human activity since the industrial revolution and the advent of the internal combustion engine has substantially increased the concentration of PM, particularly in urban areas. Human derived PM tends to be of smaller size, facilitating entry into the body through the respiratory and digestive tracts, as well as through the skin. It also tends to have adsorbed chemical species with greater toxicity than its natural counterparts. The explosive growth of nanotechnology in research and consumer products (sunscreens, cosmetics, paint) is also creating an array of ultrafine materials with largely unknown health effects. Despite numerous studies implicating PM in various disorders including acute respiratory infections, lung cancer, and chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, the specific biological mechanisms involved are not fully understood. Adarza BioSystems, Inc. seeks to leverage its proprietary Arrayed Imaging Reflectometery (AIR) biosensing platform to build a device capable of rapidly capturing the detailed physiological response to PM exposure by profiling key marker proteins (potentially >100) in conveniently available biosamples such as a finger pick of blood, urine, mucous, saliva, etc. Currently, such testing takes hours and is often done with individual singleplex tests. AIR is capable of sensitive and simultaneous protein detection with a device that is currently the size of a laptop computer. The goal of this proposal is to take our multiplexed laboratory assay, and seal it in a protective plastic cartridge so that fieldwork in unpredictable and unprotected environments would become realistic. We intend to collaborate with a company that has a long track record in building portable bioassays to military specifications to facilitate this development effort. An improved optical reader will also be designed with an integrated processing unit to control fluidic operations within the cartridge. Finally, a bank of ~1800 samples used in the previous population study will be tested using both the newly developed AIR bioassay and a more standard laboratory assay to verify the performance and of the AIR bioassay system. By the end of this 2-year project we intend to have a field deployable prototype and assay cartridges that are ready for large population studies.
Particulate matter (PM) is a major concern in the field of environmental medicine because exposure to small particles through air, water, or contact is unavoidable and these materials are known to enter the body through the respiratory and digestive tract, and even through skin. Exposure to PM has been linked to a variety of respiratory, inflammatory, and cardiac disorders, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Adarza Biosystems, Inc. seeks to integrate its rapid and highly multiplexed protein profiling technology, in a field- deployable system capable of measuring a participant's physiological response to particulate matter or other environmental stressors in large population studies.
