Technology Development

ENGINEERING BIOLOGY

Name

Description

Contact

Precision Engineering of Genetic Sensors

Genetic sensors are the key enabling component for many proposed next generation biotechnology products, such as engineered living therapeutics or structured biomaterials synthesis. NIST is using high-throughput DNA sequencing and laboratory automation to develop a scalable, generalizable workflow for the precision engineering of made-to-specification genetic sensors.

Ross

GENOMICS

Name

Description

Contact

Genome in a Bottle

GIAB developed the first benchmark of large structural changes that occur in the human genome, which will enable clinical translation and technology development for detection of diseases associated with these difficult-to-detect changes, including the technologies below (preprint is at https://doi.org/10.1101/664623). 

• GIAB benchmarks helped demonstrate the performance of a new nanopore-based technology to efficiently assemble 11 human genomes in 10 days, resolving many difficult genomic regions (preprint at https://doi.org/10.1101/715722). 
• Companies use GIAB tools as their internal R&D quality standard; resulting in rapid advancements for their sequencing platform, and novel disease gene discovery. For example, NIST collaborated with a team led by PacBio to benchmark performance of a new highly-accurate long DNA sequencing technology (https://rdcu.be/bOzlM).

Zook

ADVANCED IMAGING

Name

Description

Contact

BCARS spectroscopy and microscopy

Broadband coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (BCARS) technologies non-destructively probe the chemical composition of material and biological samples without exogenous labels, enabling the imaging of cells, tissues, and materials in minutes. This effort includes improved hardware, analysis methods, and machine learning techniques to identify and quantify chemical composition.

Camp

High-Sensitivity QCL-IR Spectroscopy

This new mid-infrared (IR) absorption spectroscopy relies on quantum cascade laser (QCL) technology to quantify biological samples in their native environment – water, providing 100 times better sensitivity versus traditional mid-IR.

Lee

Quantum BioImaging

Novel imaging modalities are being established to harness the quantum nature of light, which may improve sensitivity and resolution while significantly reducing light exposure of the sample.

Camp

3D Molecular Orientation Imaging

Molecular anisotropy in biomaterials and medical implants impacts clinical performance but cannot be readily measured.  A new 3D-orientation microscope is under development for rapid, non-invasive, optical imaging with diffraction-limited spatial resolution to quantify molecular anisotropy in situ.

Lee

QBAM

Quantitative Brightfield Absorbance Imaging (QBAM) uses a garden variety light microscope, without any additional hardware, to measure light-absorbing samples for quantitative, reproducible imaging. The ratiometric approach enables data comparability across microscopes, operators, and locations and is attractive for biomanufacturing of cells and tissues.

Simon

Real-time Measurement of Multiple Polymerization Properties

NIST Standard Reference Instrument (SRI) 6005 is a polymerization tensometer developed to simultaneously quantify multiple polymerization parameters in real time during the curing of polymers and their composites.

Chiang

High Resolution SPRI

Surface Plasmon Resonance Imaging (SPRI) is a label-free surface sensitive microscopy technique that can measure cell-matrix interactions but suffers from poor spatial resolution.  A new SPRI microscope has been developed that provides diffraction-limited spatial resolution along with quantitative interpretation - dry mass values of subcellular components can now be measured.

Peterson

TISSUE ENGINEERING

Measurements of Cell Viability in Scaffolds

A model scaffold-cell-assay system is being developed to measure cell viability in scaffolds in conjunction with an ASTM working group of tissue engineering industry stakeholders.  The model system will be applied to assess advanced viability methods, including non-invasive imaging.

Simon