ADVANCE Fellows Award - NMR Microscopy of Structure-Function Relationships and Microfluidics in Biofilms and Cellular suspensions

这一高级研究员奖是为了支持获奖者在工程学领域的学术发展。高级方案的总体任务是通过增加妇女在学术、科学和工程职业中的代表性和地位，增加妇女在科学和工程工作中的参与度。预计高级奖不仅将促进PI作为一名工程研究人员的职业生涯，还将使她成为正在追求工程或相关领域职业生涯的女学生的榜样和导师。这项研究将把核磁共振显微镜扩展到研究毛细血管和多孔介质中生物膜生长和衰退的结构-功能和周围的微流体，并研究细胞通过微通道的传输。生物膜是生长在表面的微生物菌落。虽然人们对游离细菌的生长状态知之甚少，但对细胞处于生物膜状态时的结构与功能关系知之甚少，而且已知生物膜在细菌对抗生素治疗的耐药性中发挥着重要作用。使用具有功能的新型核磁共振显微镜造影剂，以及铁标记细胞的使用，将使围绕生物膜功能的一些关键问题得到解答。预计这项研究将对过滤分离中病毒和微生物的传输分析产生重大的更广泛的影响，这项研究与许多微流体应用有关，如生物传感器和“芯片实验室”系统。核磁共振显微镜方法将允许对不透明系统(如细胞悬浮液和多孔介质)中随时间和长度尺度变化的位移进行非侵入性测量，并将为测试这些系统中传输的概念和数值模型提供独特的数据。化学和生物工程与物理和化学之间的合作将增强对微流体的理解的广度。获奖者打算通过鼓励女性研究生和本科生与她一起从事这项高度相关的生物膜研究，来促进她所在系的多样性。这一高级研究员奖将由BES和CTS两个司管理。

This ADVANCE Fellows award is to support the academic career development of the awardee in engineering. The overall mission of the ADVANCE Program is to increase the participation of women in the scientific and engineering workforce through the increased representation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers. It is anticipated that the ADVANCE award will not only advance the PI's career as an engineering researcher, but also allow her to serve as a role model and mentor to women students who are pursuing careers in engineering, or related fields. This research will extend NMR microscopy to study the structure-function and micro-fluidics surrounding growth and decay of biofilms in capillaries and porous media and investigate cell transport through microchannels. Biofilms are microbial colonies that grow on surfaces. While much is known about the growth state of free bacteria, little is known about the structure-function relationships when cells are in the biofilm state and it is known that biofilms play a significant role in the resistance of bacteria to antibiotic treatment. The use of novel NMR microscopy contrast agents that are "turned on" with function, as well as the use of iron-tagged cells will allow some of the vital questions surrounding biofilm function to be answered. It is expected that this research, which is relevant to numerous micro-fluidic applications such as biosensors and "lab on a chip" systems, will have significant broader impacts in the analysis of the transport of viruses and microbes in filtration separations. NMR microscopy methods will allow noninvasive measurement of time and length scale dependent displacements within opaque systems such as cell suspensions and porous media and will provide unique data for testing of conceptual and numerical models of transport in these systems. The collaboration between chemical and bioengineering, with physics and chemistry, will enhance the breadth of understanding of micro-fluidics. The awardee intends to advance diversity in her department by encouraging women graduate and undergraduate students to work with her on this highly relevant biofilm research. This ADVANCE Fellows award will be managed by two divisions, BES and CTS.