Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects

This project will bring together two research groups with complementary expertise led by Dr. John Schrader, a medically-trained, internationally recognized immunologist, and Dr. Carl Hansen a physicist and engineer who is a leader in innovation in the new science of microfluidics. Together these interdisciplinary teams will develop a novel and innovative device that will address a pivotal problem in basic and applied medical research - the rapid and inexpensive generation of high-value monoclonal antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies are counterparts of the antibodies in our blood that protect us from infections by binding to viruses or toxins and are responsible for immunity to diseases we have encountered before. Antibodies have the unique property thai they come in millions of different shapes. A "monoclonal antibody " is a pure preparation of one antibody with its one particular shape and different monoclonal antibodies can be selected to fight a virus or target a cancer. Monoclonal antibodies are the fastest growing class of new therapeutic agents and are providing breakthrough treatments e.g for cancers of the breast, colon, lymphatic tissues and others (Herceptin, Erbitux, Rituximab, Avastin) and arthritis and Crohn's disease (Remicade, Humira). The ability to find a monoclonal antibody that selectively binds to virtually any substance is also of enormous medical and commercial importance in the diagnosis of disease and in biomedical research. Despite this enormous potential, the discovery and production of high-quality antibodies by conventional means is a major bottleneck. Current techniques are expensive, require months or years of development, and are not compatible with the production of antibodies that can be easily used in humans. This project will merge state-of-the-art techniques in microengineering, immunology, and biophotonics to enable a postage stamp-size device to make sensitive measurements on the antibodies made by thousands of single cells and copy the genetic recipes for antibodies with useful characteristics, so that they can be made in unlimited quantities as human or rabbit monoclonal antibodies for use as therapies or as reagents. The results of the research should lead to exciting commercial opportunities.