Vanderbilt University

TEAM: QuaD-MAP

TEAM MEMBERS:
Ash Jayagopal
Chinmay Soman

FACULTY ADVISOR: Todd Giorgio

PRODUCT OR SERVICE: A cancer diagnostic technology which, according to its developers, could be used as a standard test for early detection for many cancers. The underlying technology is a combination of two nanoscale applications – fluorescent semiconductor nanoparticles, and direct self-assembly – with a novel microfluidics-based detection device.

Early detection and frequent monitoring of cancers using diagnostic proteomics can dramatically increase a patient’s chances for successful treatment. Currently, early detection tests exist only for a few cancers, and the present technologies for protein detection are not reliable for this type of application. Quad-MAP’s developers, Vanderbilt Ph.D. candidates Ash Jayagopal and Chinmay Soman, believe their product will provide a superior solution for this problem using its unique combination of nanoscale technologies. Jayagopal and Soman propose QuaD-MAP will make it possible to detect many more cancers in their early stages, and even go on to be used to diagnose other diseases as well.

QuaD-MAP’s intense and tunable fluorescence emission of semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots) provides high sensitivity and multiplexing ability. Molecular recognition-driven self-assembly of the nanostructures provides rapid and highly specific detection. Because QuaD-MAP diagnosis can be done with a simple blood sample, the sample preparation and detection can be carried out with standard clinical resources, or with a dedicated device incorporating nano-fluidic and micro-fluidic technologies. The combination of quantum dot-based multiplexing and molecular recognition-based self-assembly has not been successfully demonstrated. The one step, completely fluid phase system is a novel approach to quantitative protein detection.

The QuaD-MAP team was named second runner-up in the Nano I2P® Competition at Nano Nexus 2007, a nanotechnology conference hosted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and took home $2,000 in start-up capital. The team also received a $500 reward for being one of six finalists in the April 3, 2007 competition that began with 15 teams from twelve colleges and universities from the United States and the United Kingdom.

“The most important thing to us is seeing the technology take off,” said Soman. “We’d like to develop the technology on a commercial level. It has the potential to detect more than cancer. It can find other proteins and particles secreted into your blood.”

Cancers are responsible for one out of every four deaths in the United States, and one out of every three Americans alive today will face cancer at some point in their lifetime. Late detection of cancer is a leading cause of cancer deaths, but QuaD-MAP’s technology has the potential to alleviate the cancer epidemic with early detection, leading to better individual disease management. If early detection methods were incorporated into the current screening guidelines for breast, prostate and colon cancer, QuaD-MAP has the potential to affect virtually everyone over the age of 40.