This Phase I Small Business Innovation Research project is focused on an effort to meet a compelling need for new instrumentation for research and industrial applications relating to the biological sciences. Specifically, this proposal is designed to pursue innovative technology for and to offer substantial improvements upon currently available instrumentation for DNA analysis. The project pools key enabling proprietary technologies with proven R&D expertise and a novel amplification approach to nucleic acid analysis. The specific Phase I goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of the new amplification technique which, when combined with AndCare's unique electrochemical measurement method, should allow production of an effective new biosensor for DNA detection. A successful Phase I program would lead to full Phase II integration and demonstration of the concept, process optimization, and prototyping in preparation for Phase III commercialization. The anticipated result will be new instrumentation based on disposable sensors for nucleic acid analysis. The new line of products envisioned as the long-term goal of this initial effort would be capable of low-cost, "real time" measurements based on the use of self-contained, disposable nucleic acid sensors and notebook-sized, low-cost analytical instruments. The new analytical products being targeted by this effort would represent a key advance in the state of the art in high-performance, low-cost biomedical instrumentation that would address major domestic and international needs. The device would have application in research activities and industrial processes in major areas such as environmental biology, plant biology, and molecular biology.
