MRI: Instrumentation Acquisition for the Development of a Wet Facility for Nano-Bioengineering

0079243Pruitt这个NSF MRI奖的目的是开发一个纳米生物工程湿设施，采用纳米工程的细胞分子水平的生物系统的表征。 该设施的独特之处在于，它将提供实验室设备，使生物系统在其生理环境中的特性。 该设施的研究重点是基于纳米技术和生物工程的合并，这两个新兴领域都有希望在组织工程，细胞力学，生物过程和成像领域取得重大科学突破。 这些设施将为创建工程材料或设备的新型合成所需的仿生框架提供资源。 该设施的影响将跨越机械工程，电气工程，生物工程和材料科学的学科，以及化学，生物和医学的一般领域。 该设施所获得的设备将为细胞、蛋白质、界面和BioMEMs结构的纳米级表征提供必要的工具。 开发这一设施的方法是获得几个大型的补充设备，这将是很难为任何单一的教员单独获得，因为大的初始成本和相关的长期维护。 因此，他们建议使用NSF计划的资金购买以下系统：用于细胞和组织操作研究的原子力显微镜和带流体室的纳米压痕仪，用于细胞成像和操作的共聚焦显微镜，用于蛋白质结合表征的红外光谱仪和高压液相色谱系统，以及用于研究生物材料亚结构形态的环境扫描电子显微镜。

0079243PruittThe objective of this NSF MRI Award is to develop a Wet Facility for Nano-Bioengineering that employs nanoengineering for the characterization of cellular to molecular-level biological systems. The facility will be unique in that it will provide laboratory equipment that enables characterization of living biological systems in their physiological environments. The research focus of the facility is based on the merger of nanotechnology and bioengineering which are both emerging fields with promise of great scientific breakthroughs in the area of tissue engineering, cell mechanics, biological processes, and imaging. The facilities will provide the resources for creating a biomimetic framework necessary for novel synthesis of engineered materials or devices. The impact of this facility will span the disciplines of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, bioengineering, and materials science, as well as the general areas of chemistry, biology and medicine. The acquired equipment for this facility will provide the necessary tools for nanoscale characterization of cells, proteins, interfaces, and BioMEMs structures. The approach to developing this facility is to acquire several large pieces of complementary equipment that would be difficult for any single faculty member to acquire alone because of the large initial cost and associated long-term maintenance. Thus, they propose to purchase the following systems using funds from this NSF initiative: an atomic force microscope and nanoindenter with fluid chambers for cell and tissue manipulation studies, a confocal microscope for cell imaging and manipulation, an infrared spectrometer and high pressure liquid chromatography system for characterization of protein binding, and an environmental scanning electron microcope to study substructure morphology of biomaterials.