# Ultrasensitive PSA Quantitation Using Smartphone to Reduce Prostate Cancer Monitoring Disparities

> **NIH NIH R41** · INSTANOSIS, INC. · 2022 · $341,668

## Abstract

Project Summary
 Prostate cancer is a leading cause of cancer mortality in medically underserved men, due
to limited access to quality health care resources. Longitudinal monitoring of very low blood
prostate specific antigen (PSA) concentrations (tens of pg/mL) is an important tool for clinical
surveillance of patients post radical prostatectomy or radical radiotherapy. Such monitoring
requires high sensitivity diagnostic assays. However, it is challenging for underserved patients
suffering from health disparities to get access to the state-of-the-art diagnostic resources. Lacking
the appropriate resources and infrastructure results in loss-to-follow-up, increased tumor
recurrence and metastasis without surveillance. Residents in Chinatown communities across the
US represent such medically underserved populations suffering from health disparities, due to
language, cultural and economic barriers.
 Our goal is to reduce prostate cancer care disparities by providing access to high
sensitivity PSA measurement with minimal infrastructure needs, by further developing and
validating an ultrasensitive, convenient, low-cost and widely deployable Microbubbling PSA
Platform. This platform builds on our innovative Microbubbling Digital Assay technology, capable
of quantitating femtomolar concentrations of protein biomarkers in various biological fluids,
including blood, using smartphones. We have demonstrated that, using blood samples from
prostate cancer patients, the Microbubbling PSA assay has comparable accuracy, but ~200 fold
higher sensitivity than central laboratory state-of-the-art. The clinical feasibility and viability of the
technology has also been successfully proven for various clinical applications, including bhCG
detection and RADx-funded and FDA EUA-submitted SARS-CoV-2 antigen detection. In addition,
we have developed and demonstrated feasibility of an automated microfluidics platform that
integrates all Microbubbling assay steps.
 We propose to (Aim 1) integrate the Microbubbling PSA Assay into the automated
microfluidics platform suitable for home or urologist office use, without infrastructure or
sophisticated instrument needs. This platform only requires a few drops of fingerstick blood as
input and a smartphone for high sensitivity quantitative PSA readout in 20 min. (Aim 2) By
collaborating with the central clinical laboratory at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, we
will validate the clinical performance of the Microbubbling PSA Platform by comparing with FDA-
approved state-of-the-art, using clinical blood samples. Furthermore, we will collaborate with Dr.
Wenwu Jin, a urologist, Chief of Surgery and local expert practicing in Chinese Hospital in San
Francisco Chinatown to validate the usability of the platform in medically underserved Chinatown
residents.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10481587
- **Project number:** 1R41CA254653-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** INSTANOSIS, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Ping Wang
- **Activity code:** R41 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $341,668
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-06-06 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10481587

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10481587, Ultrasensitive PSA Quantitation Using Smartphone to Reduce Prostate Cancer Monitoring Disparities (1R41CA254653-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10481587. Licensed CC0.

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