Sanford, (ME) – Maine Manufacturing has been granted a $150,000 small business research, phase one award by the National Science Foundation. Scientists at Maine Manufacturing, a life science manufacturing company, in Sanford, ME was granted the money for research into a better diagnostic technology for clinical disorders such as heart disease and other inflammatory conditions.

Principal Investigator, Mike Harvey, Ph.D, explained the significance of the grant, “This research may allow doctors to better understand the fluctuation of a particular patient’s protein levels and correlate that to disease state or responsiveness to treatment, thereby allowing the most appropriate treatment to be used for a particular patient.”

This research will combine two technologies manufactured by the company – microscope slides and track etched membranes. Maine Manufacturing proposes to replace the standard glass on a slide with their specialized membrane. This will reduce optical interferences commonly found on microscopes and provide more surface area for binding proteins.

Maine Manufacturing has a research laboratory at its facility and employs several full-time scientists.