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Raman Flow Cytometry for Diagnostics and Drug Discovery

Principal Investigator: John Nolan, Ph.D

The ability to make quantitative, high throughput molecular measurements of biological systems is a critical need for many areas of biomedical research. This Bioengineering Research Partnership (BRP) aims to develop a powerful new analytical platform for high throughput screening and selection based on Raman Flow Cytometry. This Partnership will develop new analytical instrumentation, optically encoded polymer resins for chemical synthesis and screening, and nanostructured materials with unique optically properties for sensitive reporting and encoding. The new technology will perform Raman spectroscopy on single particles in flow to enable new applications in sensitive multiplexed detection, drug discovery, and diagnostics. The Raman Flow Cytometry instrumentation, and applications will be developed by a Partnership involving engineers, biologists, and chemists from academia, government and industry. In the first year of the Partnership, we will modify a commercial particle sorter to detect individual Raman vibrational bands from single particles and sort these particles based on their optical signature. In Years 2-5, we will develop the ability to collect and analyze complete Raman spectra from single particles. In parallel, the Partnership will develop new encoding and reporting strategies for multiplexed molecular analysis and separation. This Raman Flow Cytometry technology will be applied to the development of therapeutics and diagnostics for bacterial pathogens and their toxins. Raman Flow Cytometry will be an important and general new analytical and separation capability that will impact many areas of basic and applied biomedical research in addition to the applications proposed here.