# Harmonic Acoustics for Neighboring cell Dynamic studies(HANDs)

> **NIH NIH R01** · BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL · 2022 · $447,396

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Dynamic cell-cell interactions are crucial for healthy cell behavior and proper intercellular communication.
Impaired intercellular communication has been implicated in the pathologies of various diseases including
cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, bacterial and viral infections, autoimmune diseases, and cardiovascular
diseases. As a result, probing cell-cell interactions is essential to many areas of biomedical research. It can lead
to a more detailed understanding of various diseases and the development of novel therapeutic strategies, such
as personalized immuno-oncology. However, current single-cell analysis techniques are slow and require
potentially harmful physical contact with cells of interest, hindering the progress in elucidating these phenomena.
Recently, we invented Harmonic Acoustics for Neighboring cell Dynamic studies (HANDs), an acoustic-
based, automated, contact-free, cell-cell-pairing technology, which overcomes the key obstacles associated with
the existing technologies. In this R01 project, we will develop and validate the HANDs platform with the following
features: (1) Contactless nature and high biocompatibility: Instead of requiring direct contact with solid
substrates or beads, the proposed HANDs technology is a contactless method. In addition, rather than exposure
to large shear forces, strong pressures, or powerful optics, which can cause physiological damage, the cells in
our setup are manipulated gently with low-power acoustic waves. The proposed HANDs platform allows long-
term (>24 hours) cell-cell interaction studies. This feat cannot easily be achieved using existing state-of-the-art
technologies such as atomic force spectroscopy. (2) High-throughput reversible cell-cell interactions and
precise quantitative analysis at the single-cell level: The multi-trapping nature of the HANDs technology
enables the simultaneous and parallel study of numerous (>20,000) cell pairs with single-cell precision. Existing
single-cell techniques are either limited to studying a single pair of cells at any given time or lack the precision
needed to control cell pairing and separation, and precise quantitative analysis. (3) Automated operation:
Unlike existing cell pairing technologies which require complicated procedures and tools to achieve operation,
the proposed technology automatically aligns cell-cell pairs using acoustic traps. Additionally, once the control
signal is specified, cells can be brought into contact and separated in whatever automated and prescribed contact
pattern is desired for testing. (4) High resolution (~100 nm): Using single-phase unidirectional transducers and
harmonic frequency modulation, we will improve the spatial resolution of our HANDs technology from ~1 μm to
~100 nm. We will validate the performance of our HANDs platform across two well-established models:
interactions between T cells and cancer cells, and interactions between stem cells and macrophages. In this
regard, we aim to d...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10420294
- **Project number:** 1R01GM145960-01
- **Recipient organization:** BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Luke P. Lee
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $447,396
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-06-10 → 2026-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10420294

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10420294, Harmonic Acoustics for Neighboring cell Dynamic studies(HANDs) (1R01GM145960-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10420294. Licensed CC0.

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