Soft Cleaning of Wire-Immobilized Genetic Material

The MinION instrument developed by Oxford Nanopore is the gold standard in portable genetic sequencing. Experts in a very many technical areas are energized about the possibility of bringing DNA and RNA sequencing from the full-service laboratory to the field. Painfully, though, the MinION is only half of the solution; field sequencing is still unfeasible. The preparation of such a genetic sample (referred to as the DNA Library), remains an intensely manual process needing a trained wet lab technician and several pieces of laboratory equipment. To achieve the elegant automation of this DNA Library preparation from a raw sample, we must first abandon the standard conventions for handling and manipulating the biological and biochemical constituents. Any other solution will possess an inefficiency and unmanageable complexity that is unsuited to the size, weight, and power (SWaP) budget of any NASA mission . In Phase I nou Systems Inc. (nSI) has demonstrated such a transformative approach. We have threaded together several cross-enabling innovations to create an instrument, nSI Xpres, that can fully automate the DNA Library prep process. Since low-biomass sequencing is our goal, we have based our protocol around the PCR-based preparation chemistry that is conventionally associated with the 16S Barcoding Kit sold commercially by Oxford Nanopore. Innovation 1 : Soft Cleaning of Wire-Immobilized Genetic material (SCWiG) Innovation 2: Zero-Volume Microfluidic Regions (ZVRs) Innovation 3: Innovation: Thermal Gradient Heating/Cooling At the completion of this Phase II effort, nSI will deliver a prototype of nSI Xpres to NASA and will provide up to two days of in-person training at NASA JSC for up to six persons. The MinION™ instrument is the gold standard in portable genetic sequencing. Experts in a many technical areas are energized about the possibility of bringing DNA and RNA sequencing from the full-service laboratory to the field. The MinION is only half of the solution; field sequencing is still unfeasible. The preparation of such a genetic sample (referred to as the DNA Library), remains an intensely manual process needing a trained wet lab technician and several pieces of laboratory equipment. To achieve the elegant automation of this DNA Library preparation from a raw sample, we must first abandon the standard conventions for handling and manipulating the biological and biochemical constituents. Any other solution will possess an inefficiency and unmanageable complexity that is unsuited to the size, weight, and power (SWaP) budget of any NASA mission . In Phase I nou Systems Inc. (nSI) has demonstrated such a transformative approach. We have threaded together several cross-enabling innovations to create an instrument, nSI Xpres, that can fully automate the DNA Library prep process. At the completion of this Phase II effort, nSI will deliver a comprehensive hardware package to NASA, and will provide up to two days of in-person training at NASA JSC for up to six persons. This training will be part of our Final Debrief; the schedule, duration, and participants/trainees will be finalized with input from the Phase II Technical Monitor. The hardware package will include:   A full-function prototype of the complete system, referred to as the nSI Xpres,  ready-to-use DMCs containing the reagents for the PCR-based 16S barcode library prep. A Documentation Package.  

The ISS has a respectable portfolio of biological testing equipment. Two of these instruments include flight-hardened versions of the Cepheid SmartCycler and the Oxford Nanopore MinION. These represents the cutting edge of genetic testing technology. The prevailing challenge has been the multistep nature of the sample preparation protocols. We have solved this problem for qRT-PCR reactions in the SmartCycler, and we now propose to adapt this TRL8 method to the more challenging task of sample prep for MinION sequencing of microbial DNA.  The biotech targeted market is a 4.7 billion market with an established CAGR of 11.4%. Primary commercialization strategy is by licensing the technology to our BioGX technology transitioning partners and supporting future technology refinements and modifications pending feedback from end users and field tests.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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