TECHNOLOGY/BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY Automated High Throughput Screening Platform

Opportunity: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), operated by the Lawrence Livermore National Security (LLNS), LLC under contract no. DE-AC52-07NA27344 (Contract 44) with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is offering the opportunity to enter into a collaboration to further develop its automated high throughput screening platform. Background: Proteins, including antibodies, are increasingly becoming important as therapeutics. LLNL has developed an in silico antibody design platform based on AI tools. The approach requires experimental evaluation of in silico designed antibodies, which currently takes several weeks. There is a need to overcome this shortcoming and develop an automated and integrated platform that can accomplish this task rapidly. Description: LLNL inventors have developed a method and device for the high throughput screening of various chemical and biological entities using a novel combination of cell-free protein synthesis (in vitro transcription-translation), microencapsulation and optical interrogation. This includes automated sample handling, microemulsions, microfluidics manipulation, machine vision, and fluorescent interrogation. This automated system can be used to partition analytes into thousands of independent microdroplet reactions that are tracked and optically interrogated for assay activity. Since timing of droplet generation and position are known, an n-dimensional pooling strategy can be performed to increase screening throughput over the traditional 1:1 assay method. An optical interrogation method such as fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) can provide highly quantitative information for each reaction in real time (e.g., affinity constant for novel antibodies), significantly increasing the precision and quality of data that informs future models and experiments. The approach outlined will enable the feedback loop from experimental evaluations to occur in about 3 days rather than 6 weeks, thereby enabling high quality antibody designs in weeks rather than months. Advantages/Benefits: The major advantages of the invention are: (i) integration of making protein (cell-free system), microencapsulation to generate thousands of reactions, and interrogation to characterize interactions into a single device; (ii) rapid turnaround; and (iii) cost saving by using analytes and reagents in small volumes. Potential Applications: The invention has numerous applications such as antibody development, large and small molecule functionality screening, cell-free protein synthesis development and monitoring, protein-small molecule, protein-nucleic acid and protein-protein interactions, directed evolution, cell killing assays, protein production, and stability monitoring. Development Status: Current stage of technology development: TRL-2 LLNL has filed for patent protection on this invention. LLNL is seeking industry partners with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Moving critical technology beyond the Laboratory to the commercial world helps our licensees gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. All licensing activities are conducted under policies relating to the strict nondisclosure of company proprietary information. Please visit the IPO website at https://ipo.llnl.gov/resources for more information on working with LLNL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process. Note: THIS IS NOT A PROCUREMENT. Companies interested in commercializing LLNL's Automated High Throughput Screening Platform should provide an electronic OR written statement of interest, which includes the following: Company Name and address. The name, address, and telephone number of a point of contact. A description of corporate expertise and/or facilities relevant to commercializing this technology. Please provide a complete electronic OR written statement to ensure consideration of your interest in LLNL's automated high throughput screening technology. The subject heading in an email response should include the Notice ID and/or the title of LLNL's Technology/Business Opportunity and directed to the Primary and Secondary Point of Contacts listed below. Written responses should be directed to: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Innovation and Partnerships Office P.O. Box 808, L-779 Livermore, CA 94551-0808 Attention: IL-13845