Imagen Bioworks Inc.

A Versatile Platform to Isolate Cells From Three-dimensional Samples After Spatial and Temporal Profiling - Project Summary/abstract Isolating Individual Cells From Mixed Populations Offers a Powerful Way to Study Molecular Underpinnings of Diseases and Unravel New Targets for Drug Development. Single-cell Isolation Is Also Important for Directed Evolution Screens for Engineering Biological Systems. Despite the Growing Interest in Single-cell Isolation Techniques From Both Industry and Academia, Current Methods Have a Critical Limitation. They Fail to Isolate Individual Interesting Target Cells From Tissue or 3D Cultures. Addressing This Problem Would Enable Research in a More Physiological Environment, Providing a More Accurate Assessment of Gene, Protein, or Cell Behaviors and Functions. We Have Recently Reported Spotlight, a Versatile All-optical Method for Isolating Single Cells Within Live Cultures Based on Spatial and Temporal Properties. in Spotlight, We Optically Tag Target Cells Exhibiting Interesting Phenotypes Through Fluorescence Photoactivation Using a Specialized Light-patterning Device Connected to a Microscope. These Photoactivated Cells, Distinguishable by Their Bright Red or Green Fluorescence, Are Then Isolated With a Facs Machine. However, the Current Spotlight Setup Relies on a 1-PHOTON Widefield Microscopy Setup, Limiting Its Utility for 3D Samples. the Overall Objective of This Project Is to Create a 2-PHOTON (2P) Microscopy Version of Spotlight, Dubbed 2P-SPOTLIGHT. Our Commercialization Plan Is to Provide 2P-SPOTLIGHT as a Service to Our Customers in Industry and Academia. in Phase I, We Will Develop the Necessary Reagents to Allow Optical Labeling of Cells Within 3D Cultures Using 2-PHOTON Light. We Will Also Develop a 2P-SPOTLIGHT Assay to Isolate Spatially Distinct Subpopulations of Tumor-infiltrating T-cells. We Believe This Project Will Satisfy the Unmet Need to Isolate Cells From 3D Cultures to Conduct Downstream Spatiotemporal Omics.