Fundamental Technologies for Biomolecular Sensors (FTB)

Established: 2001

NASA and the NCI formed a partnership to jointly research and develop biomolecular sensors that will revolutionize the practice of medicine on earth and in space. To this end, NCI and NASA supported the development of new minimally invasive technologies to scan the body for the earliest signatures of emerging disease and support immediate, specific intervention. These technologies supported a seamless interface between detection, diagnosis, and intervention. Essential to the utility of these technologies was the development of infrastructure and analysis tools that linked the information on basic discoveries, intervention discoveries, and clinical outcomes with specific patient histories to aid the caregiver in making rapid, informed decisions about appropriate intervention.

The NCI/NASA Fundamental Technologies for the Development of Biomolecular Sensors (FTB) Program solicited projects to develop fundamental technologies for systems or system components that measured, analyzed, and manipulated molecular processes at appropriate scale in the living body. The discoveries from this program were intended to enable the development of complete systems for the in vivo sensing of signatures of pathologic cell types or closely associated micro-environmental factors. These systems provided a seamless interface between sensing/detection and delivery of signature-specific intervention. This program ended in FY2006.