The team from the University of Michigan has developed a new technology that allows purification of cells, based on the simultaneous antibody detection of any two distinct surface features, called two-particle activated cell sorting. This is important because biological cell research and medical technologies require efficient cell separation techniques to advance basic research of cells and for medical research and clinical treatment. Current approaches include fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) and magnetic activated cell sorting (MACS). FACS requires expensive instrumentation and MACS lacks specificity.
Being able to enrich low levels of cells to a high degree of purity from complex samples is recognized as being a significant missing component in many areas of life science. The proposed work plans on meeting this need through a combination of two-surface marker isolation (currently only possible with expensive instrumentation) with the ease of use and cost of magnetic separation (currently only possible to perform single-parameter separation). This technology may have a potential to shift the market landscape creating a niche opportunity between FACS and MACS, only taking the advantage of both.
The goal of ths project was to assess the commercial possibilities of a technology developed in our laboratory to isolate cells from samples that might be encountered in medicine or in industrial uses. The project did not support new science, but rather addressed whether our technology and our team were likely to find success in commercializing the work. The program was ultimately very successful and resulted in the formation of Akadeum Life Sciences. Akadeum is a company focused on the development and delivery of new tools for improving health through improved handling of cells and bacteria. In many applications in human health and in industrial life science processes, users need to gather and purify cells prior to analyzing their chemical, metabolic, or genetic features. In these applications, technologies are valuable when they are not only very accurate, but very fast, easy, and economical to use. Akadeum's expertise is in finding cells, particles,and molecules in complicated mixtures that might be encountered in blood samples or other similar materials. Once captured, these 'targets' can then be delivered to different analytical devices and methods that are commonly used for performing evaluating health, safety, and research measurements. The NSF's support was invaluable in moving Akadeum's technology from the laboratory into the market place where it is available to solve problems faced by medicine, industry, and research.
