# In situ single cell imaging

> **NIH NIH R44** · DOTQUANT, LLC · 2020 · $605,767

## Abstract

Abstract
Cancer immunotherapy is revolutionizing the landscape of cancer treatment, with checkpoint inhibitors,
activated T cell therapies, and a range of other combinatorial approaches providing lasting benefits for
patients. However, the response rate to these advanced therapeutic approaches is only 15-30%,
demonstrating the urgent need of better understanding of and eventually addressing the low-response
problem, as well as the need of technologies for patient stratification, which often involves the use of
biomarkers to fingerprint individuals’ tumors. Here, we propose to develop a versatile quantum dot (Qdot)-
based single-cell molecular profiling technology for in situ multiplexed quantitative molecular characterization of
biological specimens with optical imaging resolution. Despite the availability of Qdots commercially since early
2000s, they have not received broad adoptions and enabled biological discoveries, although they offer much
better optical properties than organic fluorophores. Key problems include the modest improvement in
multiplexing, and the sophisticated, lengthy, cost-prohibitive, and low-reproducibility probe preparation
approaches developed to date. Based on a breakthrough made by Prof. Gao’s lab (Nat. Commun.), the
technology proposed here is capable of solving both problems (patent recently awarded, ready for
commercialization). It simultaneously achieves the multiplexing capability of mass spectrometry (10s-100s) and
the sensitivity, resolution, in situ imaging, low cost, great accessibility (microscopes are standard compared to
mass spectrometers) of immunofluorescence.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10062602
- **Project number:** 4R44CA239939-02
- **Recipient organization:** DOTQUANT, LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** Feng Gao
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $605,767
- **Award type:** 4N
- **Project period:** 2019-12-11 → 2021-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10062602

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10062602, In situ single cell imaging (4R44CA239939-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10062602. Licensed CC0.

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