SBIR Phase I: Chemically Selective Litmus Paper for Exposure Monitoring

这项小企业创新研究第一阶段的研究项目采用了一种基于生物分子受体进化筛选的新方法，模拟了生物学中用于气相化学分析的分子识别。这种方法导致了各种短肽序列的发现，这些序列由于多价结合而被证明对气体分子具有高度选择性。当聚二乙炔（PDA）等共轭聚合物的脂质体由于其表面的配体与受体结合而发生扭曲时，就会引起由蓝到红的颜色变化。该项目的创新之处在于将短肽受体与PDA脂质体结合，制成具有化学选择性的变色“石蕊试纸”，用于检测室内环境中的致癌物和其他化学物质，以及易感人群的个人暴露监测。在人类的五种感官中，那些与嗅觉和味觉有关的感官还没有在微型设备中复制出来，主要是因为缺乏选择性。化学分析目前使用气相色谱-质谱法。由于这类系统庞大且昂贵，化学分析基本上停留在实验室和集中的设施中。这里提出的化学选择性涂层技术有可能从根本上改变这一点，并导致低成本的便携式和无处不在的传感器系统。这些微系统可以分散与挥发性爆炸物、毒素、杀虫剂、化学品、食品变质产品、疾病状态代谢物生物标志物、调味剂和化妆品有关的空气中化学物质的化学分析。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I research project uses a new approach based on evolutionary screening of biomolecular receptors mimicking molecular recognition in biology for gas-phase chemical analysis. This approach has led to the discovery of various short peptide sequences that are shown to be highly selective to gas molecules due to multivalent binding. When liposomes of conjugated polymers such as polydiacetylene (PDA) are distorted due to ligand-receptor binding on their surface, a blue-to-red color change is induced. The innovation in this project is to combine the short peptide receptors with the PDA liposomes to create chemically-selective color-changing "litmus paper" for detecting carcinogens and other chemicals in indoor environments and for personal exposure monitoring of susceptible populations. Of the five human senses, those related to smell and taste have not been replicated in miniature devices, mainly due to the lack of selectivity. Chemical analysis is currently achieved using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Because such systems are large and expensive, chemical analysis has largely remained in the lab and in centralized facilities. The technology for chemically selective coatings proposed here has the potential to fundamentally change that, and lead to low-cost sensor systems that are portable and ubiquitous. These microsystems can decentralize chemical analysis of air-borne chemicals related to volatile explosives, toxins, pesticides, chemicals, food spoilage products, metabolite biomarkers for disease states, flavoring agents and cosmetics.