TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OPPORTUNITY: High Quality Tissue Formation Method (MSC-TOPS-41)

NASA’s Technology Transfer Program solicits inquiries from companies interested in obtaining license rights to commercialize, manufacture and market the following technology. License rights may be issued on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis and may include specific fields of use. NASA provides no funding in conjunction with these potential licenses. THE TECHNOLOGY: NASA Johnson Space Center seeks interested parties for the licensing and commercialization of the High Density Spot Seeding (HDSS) method patented technology used to create 2D and 3D tissue models. This method can be used to develop tissue models for a variety of applications including wound treatment, therapy, tissue modeling of skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, nerve, and bone. The HDSS technique uses an easy four step method that does not require expensive reagents, such as specialized serum or growth factors and compared to traditional methods, HDSS has the potential to yield superior-quality tissue samples. This technology is a simple, reproducible, and cost-effective process that creates 2D and 3D human tissue formations by high-density spot seeding (HDSS) of cells. The method entails the spot seeding of cells at a specific concentration onto a Petri dish, but without the need of extracellular matrix components. Cells are then incubated to allow attachment. The culture is rinsed with a medium to remove unattached cells and a growth medium is added to enable the cells at the periphery of the spot to proliferate and differentiate, outward from the center cells. This pattern of growth results in a 2D model of dense, organized, mature cells. It is proposed that the 2D formations can be stacked upon another via lamination process to create 3D tissues. By forming tissue using this method, the technology enables the creation of unique models for R&D, pharmaceutical development and perhaps even regenerative medicine. For instance, for basic R&D, the study of mechanistic pathways involved in normal and/or diseased tissue becomes possible. This technology can also be used as an in-vitro tissue model for drug screening and toxicology testing in the pharmaceutical development field. The HDSS method may also be advantageous for high-throughput screening assays, where large volume of screenings are done simultaneously. To express interest in this opportunity, please submit a license application through NASA’s Automated Technology Licensing Application System (ATLAS) by visiting https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/MSC-TOPS-41 If you have any questions, please contact NASA Johnson Space Center’s Technology Transfer Office at [email protected] with the title of this Technology Transfer Opportunity as listed in this FBO notice and your preferred contact information. For more information about licensing other NASA-developed technologies, please visit the NASA Technology Transfer Portal at https://technology.nasa.gov/ These responses are provided to members of NASA’s Technology Transfer Program for the purpose of promoting public awareness of NASA-developed technology products, and conducting preliminary market research to determine public interest in and potential for future licensing opportunities. No follow-on procurement is expected to result from responses to this Notice.