Quantum Logic Devices Announces Phase II SBIR for Molecular Profiling Platform

Quantum Logic Devices has been awarded a Phase II SBIR from NASA, entitled “Single Electron Transistor Platform for Microgravity Proteomics. The two year program will develop a handheld platform for metabolic profiling based on the company’s proprietary nanotransistors that directly detect single molecules in complex samples like blood, saliva, or urine.
“Our technology uniquely meets the needs of NASA for providing molecular-level medical information during space missions,” says Dr. Louis Brousseau, company CEO. Physiological changes occur once astronauts enter the microgravity environment of space, including bone and muscle deterioration. To understand these changes, the proteins and enzymes involved in musculoskeletal metabolism need to be identified and measured while astronauts are in orbit.
“Currently, the best NASA can do is test astronauts before and after a mission, then guess what happened in between. This is because the existing tools for molecular profiling are bulky and expensive,” explains Brousseau. “We offered them a more powerful technology that can fit in a shoebox and give them information in real time.”
This last point is important, because the Space Shuttle and International Space Station were not designed to accommodate the bulky laboratory equipment in use today for biomolecular testing. The Quantum Logic Devices instrument is handheld and simplifies the test to an electronic cartridge much like that used for home glucose testing, but able to see many different metabolic markers. Alternative technologies in the market use optical detection of fluorescent dyes to indicate the presence of these markers, which requires expensive equipment and complex procedures to achieve the necessary accuracy.
It is anticipated that the technology from Quantum Logic Devices will be useful for the civilian markets as well, enabling faster and more accurate diagnosis of infections as well as metabolic profiling of patients for more precise prescription of therapies. The company envisions new markets for such testing at physicians’ offices, remote-location clinics, and even homes.
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