NIRT: Nanofluidic Networks for Single-Molecule Protein Analysis

项目摘要本研究旨在开发实现基于聚合物的纳米流体网络的新方法，并将这些纳米加工技术应用于用于单分子蛋白质分离的超灵敏生物分析仪器。复杂的生物样本，如组织、肿瘤、血清或细胞，可能含有数千种蛋白质，从执行常见家务任务的高度丰富的蛋白质到可能以小至每个细胞一个分子的数量存在的极低丰度的蛋白质。这个NIRT项目解决了对高分辨率、高灵敏度分离技术的需求，这种技术可以对超低摩尔分数进行分类，直到单个蛋白质或多肽水平，以便进行鉴定。该项目的成功完成将带来新的超高灵敏度筛查战略，适用于从基础生物学研究到疾病研究和药物发现的各种应用。拟议的技术平台将基于纳米通道的单分子检测与集成样本操作相结合，为大规模蛋白质分析带来了极大减少样本消耗的潜力，在蛋白质数量极其有限的情况下，影响到基因组学、蛋白质组学和药物发现等行业关键领域。

Project Abstract The proposed research aims to develop novel approaches for realizing polymer-based nanofluidic networks, and apply these nanofabrication techniques to ultra-sensitive bioanalytical instrumentation for single-molecule protein separations. Complex biological samples such as tissues, tumors, serum, or cells can contain thousands of proteins ranging from highly abundant proteins which perform common housekeeping tasks, to extremely low abundance proteins which may be present in quantities as small as a single molecule per cell. This NIRT project addresses the need for high-resolution, high-sensitivity separation techniques which can sort ultra-low molarities, down to the individual protein or peptide level, for identification. successful completion of the project will result in new ultra-high-sensitivity screening strategies for applications ranging from fundamental biological studies to disease research and drug discovery. The proposed technology platform, coupling nanochannel-based single molecule detection with integrated sample manipulation, opens the potential for extraordinary reductions in sample consumption for broad-scale protein analysis where the quantity of protein is extremely limited, impacting industry-critical areas such as genomics, proteomics, and drug discovery.