NCI Provides Grant to NanoSort to Develop Lab-on-a-chip Devices for Detecting Cancer Cells

NanoSort, a start up biomedical device manufacturer, has received a two-year grant worth $297,000 from the National Cancer Institute for Small Business Innovation Research. NCI has also granted a contract worth $198,000 to NanoSort.

The company will use two new technologies to develop devices that will detect cancerous tumour cells when they are circulating. The company reduces the cost and size of flow cytometers by using its lab-on-a-chip technology.

NanoSort will use its lab-on-a-chip technology to develop a system that will automatically label and capture rare cancer cells that are circulating in the blood through different stages. As part of further research, next-generation sequencing can also be applied to the cells that have been captured this way. The microfluidic platform developed by NanoSort will help in reducing the costs involved in treatment of cancer and its diagnosis.

As part of the Small Business Innovation Research grant Dr.Lyudmila Bazhenov from Moores Medical Centre at UCSD and Dr. Clodagh O’Shea from the Salk Institute will work together for the development of a diagnostic platform comprising of the latest viral tools created from microfluidic flow cytometry. This platform will be created with an aim to provide an affordable device to detect circulating tumour cells for hospitals and labs.