SBIR Phase I: Chemically Selective Litmus Paper for Exposure Monitoring

这项小型企业创新研究第一阶段研究项目使用了一种新的方法，该方法基于生物分子受体的进化筛选，模拟生物学中的分子识别，用于气相化学分析。这种方法导致了各种短肽序列的发现，这些序列被证明由于多价结合而对气体分子具有高度选择性。当共轭聚合物如聚二乙炔(PDA)的脂质体由于其表面的配体-受体结合而扭曲时，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脂质体相结合，创造出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，并用于个人对易感人群的暴露监测。在人类的五种感官中，与嗅觉和味觉相关的那些感官还没有在微型设备中复制，主要是因为缺乏选择性。目前，化学分析是利用气相色谱-质谱仪来实现的。由于这样的系统规模庞大且价格昂贵，化学分析在很大程度上仍停留在实验室和中央设施中。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，并导致便携式和无处不在的低成本传感器系统。这些微系统可以分散空气中与挥发性爆炸物、毒素、杀虫剂、化学品、食品变质产品、疾病状态代谢物生物标记物、调味剂和化妆品有关的化学分析。

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.