Granted Patent B2

US 7,521,253 · App. 10/303,500 · Granted Apr 21, 2009

Abstract

Claims (48)

1. A method of drug discovery utilizing a nanocalorimeter, the method comprising:

depositing at least one drop containing a plurality of drug targets and at least one drop containing a plurality of drug candidates upon a nanocalorimeter test substrate, each drop having a volume in a range between approximately 20 nL and approximately 250 μL;

merging said at least one drop containing a plurality of drug targets and said at least one drop containing a plurality of drug candidates by applying a voltage to drop merging electrodes and producing a mixture containing the plurality of drug targets and the plurality of drug candidates;

calorimetrically measuring heat from the mixture while maintaining the mixture under appropriate conditions for a sufficient time to allow binding;

from the calorimetrically measured heat, detecting whether a reaction has occurred in the mixture resulting in thermal change; and

if a reaction has occurred, performing additional screening to identify at least one of the drug candidates in the mixture that reacted with one of the drug targets; the additional screening including:

individually testing with each other a single one of the drug targets that was present in the mixture that reacted and a single one of the drug candidates that was present in the mixture that reacted; and

detecting whether a reaction occurs between the single one of the drug targets and the single one of the drug candidates.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the drops contain low concentrations of said drug targets and said drug candidates.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the nanocalorimeter utilizes a single test chamber to perform the acts of depositing, merging, and calorimetrically measuring.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the nanocalorimeter utilizes a loading chamber and a separate test chamber to perform the acts of depositing, merging, and calorimetrically measuring.

5. A method of drug discovery utilizing a nanocalorimeter, the method comprising:

depositing at least one drop containing a plurality of drug targets and at least one drop containing a plurality of drug candidates upon a nanocalorimeter test substrate, each drop having a volume of approximately 20 nL or more;

merging said at least one drop containing a plurality of drug targets and said at least one drop containing a plurality of drug candidates on the test substrate to produce a mixture containing the plurality of drug targets and the plurality of drug candidates, the mixture including less than 500 μL of volume;

producing a heat signal by calorimetrically measuring temperature from the test substrate, the heat signal indicating thermal change in the mixture, the heat signal not being degraded due to said plurality of drug targets in the mixture;

from the heat signal, detecting whether a reaction has occurred in the mixture; and

if a reaction has occurred, performing additional screening to identify at least one of the drug candidates in the mixture that reacted with one of the drug targets; the additional screening including:

individually testing with each other a single one of the drug targets that was present in the mixture that reacted and a single one of the drug candidates that was present in the mixture that reacted; and

detecting whether a reaction occurs between the single one of the drug targets and the single one of the drug candidates.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein performing additional screening comprises:

depositing a drop containing at least one drug target upon a test substrate;

depositing a drop containing at least one drug candidate upon said test substrate;

merging said drop containing at least one drug target and said drop containing at least one drug candidate by applying a voltage to drop merging electrodes; and

detecting whether a reaction has occurred between said drop containing at least one drug target and said drop containing at least one drug candidate by measuring the temperature difference from before said reaction to after said reaction.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein said drop containing at least one drug target contains a single drug target.

8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein said drop containing at least one drug candidate contains a single drug candidate.

9. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising identifying those drug candidates that cause a reaction.

10. The method according to claim 6 , wherein merging said drop containing a plurality of drug targets and said drop containing a plurality of drug candidates comprises utilizing electrostatic force.

11. The method according to claim 5 , wherein detecting whether a reaction has occurred comprises detecting an increase in signal proportional to the reaction.

12. The method according to claim 5 , wherein detecting whether a reaction has occurred comprises detecting a thermal change.

13. The method according to claim 5 , further comprising providing a controlled environment.

14. The method according to claim 13 , wherein said controlled environment comprises a thermally controlled environment.

15. The method according to claim 5 , wherein merging said at least one drop containing a plurality of drug targets and said at least one drop containing a plurality of drug candidates comprises utilizing electrostatic force.

16. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the nanocalorimeter test substrate has at least one reference region and at least one measurement region.

17. The method according to claim 16 , wherein depositing said at least one drop containing a plurality of drug targets comprises depositing at least one drop containing a plurality of drug targets within each of said measurement region and said reference region.

18. The method according to claim 16 , wherein depositing said at least one drop containing a plurality of drug candidates comprises depositing at least one drop containing a plurality of drug candidates within said measurement region.

19. The method according to claim 16 , further comprising depositing at least one drop of a non-reactive chemical material within said reference region.

20. A method of drug discovery utilizing a nanocalorimeter, the method comprising:

depositing a respective drop containing a plurality of drug targets and a respective drop containing a plurality of drug candidates upon a measurement region of a nanocalorimeter test substrate and depositing a respective drop containing a plurality of drug targets and a respective drop of non-reactive chemical material upon a reference region of the test substrate, the measurement region and the reference region being thermally isolated, each drop having a volume of approximately 20 nL or more;

merging the measurement region's respective drops in the measurement region and the reference region's respective drops in the reference region to produce a respective mixture in each of the measurement region and the reference region, each respective mixture including less than 500 μL of volume; the measurement region's respective mixture containing the plurality of drug targets and the plurality of drug candidates;

maintaining the measurement region's respective mixture under appropriate conditions and for a sufficient time to allow binding of each candidate in the plurality of drug candidates to each target in the plurality of drug targets, binding of any of the candidates to any of the targets resulting in a temperature difference;

producing a heat signal indicating thermal change due to binding in the measurement region, the heat signal not being degraded due to said plurality of drug targets in the mixture; the act of producing the heat signal comprising:

calorimetrically measuring temperature both from the measurement region and from the reference region; and

obtaining a difference signal indicating difference between measured temperatures of the measurement and reference regions;

from the heat signal, detecting whether a reaction has occurred between said plurality of drug candidates and said plurality of drug targets in the measurement region's mixture; and

if a reaction has occurred, performing additional screening to identify at least one of the drug candidates in the measurement region's mixture that reacted with one of the drug targets; the additional screening including:

individually testing with each other a single one of the drug targets that was present in the mixture that reacted and a single one of the drug candidates that was present in the mixture that reacted; and

detecting whether a reaction occurs between the single one of the drug targets and the single one of the drug candidates.

Assignments (9)