NSF Award
9560408
9560408 Sullivan An alarming increase in fungal infections has focused attention on the need to identify new compounds with antifungal activity. This Small Business Phase I research project focuses on developing a rapid method for screening compounds for antifungal activity using gel microdrops and fluorescent activated cell sorting. This technique provides a quantitative approach for evaluating growth and antifungal sensitivity. Conventional drug screening, which is based on dilution and plating methods, is costly, time consuming and difficult to automate. An additional benefit of the proposed method is the ability to recover microorganisms of interest for further analysis, such as gene sequence determination. This project offers an innovative approach to drug screening. The market potential for developing rapid automated susceptibility assays for screening drug candidates against infectious disease targets is significant. In addition to screening cells on a fee for service basis, the company is also leasing CellSyTM microdrop makers for encapsulation and screening in individual research laboratories.
