PECASE: Dielectric Phenotyping of Bacteria for Energy and Medicine

[摘要]buie， Cullen r .提出的研究目的是阐明细胞包膜表型和介电性质之间的耦合。这将通过对致病菌和电化学活性细菌的研究来实现。将使用三维绝缘体基介质电泳（3DiDEP）装置。新型3DiDEP平台能够基于细胞包膜表型对活细胞进行非侵入性分选、捕获和表征。这项工作的假设是3DiDEP可以用来表征细菌细胞包膜上表达的功能。3DiDEP可实现低电压、高灵敏度的细胞分离和分析。此外，提议的3DiDEP采用微通道外的电极，该技术在低频或直流电场下工作。提出的3DiDEP是一种强大的微生物学高通量表型技术。使用3DiDEP的基于表型的选择代表了微流体在表型组学不断发展的领域中的第一个应用。拟议中的项目还可能有助于解决从可再生能源到医疗保健等各个领域的广泛关切。PI还建议与目标大学建立关系，以增加麻省理工学院研究生项目中少数族裔的代表性。PI概述了一种独特的方法来培养新一代未被充分代表的少数民族科学家，他们可能会回到各自的本科院校担任教员，从而在学生和教员层面上解决多样性问题。

Abstract1150615-Buie, Cullen R.The objective of the proposed research is to illuminate the coupling between cell envelope phenotype and dielectric properties. This will be achieved by the investigation of pathogenic bacteria and electrochemically active bacteria. A three-dimensional insulator based dielectrophoresis (3DiDEP) device will be used. The novel 3DiDEP platform enables non-invasive sorting, trapping, and characterization of living cells based upon the cell envelope phenotype. The hypothesis of the work is that 3DiDEP can be used to characterize the functions expressed on the bacteria cell envelope. 3DiDEP enables low voltage, high sensitivity separation and analysis of cells. Also, the proposed 3DiDEP employs electrodes outside of the microchannel, the technique operates at low frequency or DC electric fields. The proposed 3DiDEP is a powerful technique for high throughput phenotyping in microbiology. Phenotype based selection using 3DiDEP represents one of the first applications of microfluidics in the growing field of phenomics. The proposed project may also help to address widespread concerns in diverse fields ranging from renewable energy to healthcare. The PI also proposes to develop relationships with target universitis to increase the representation of underrepresented minorities in MIT graduate programs. The PI has outlined a unique approach to train a new generation of underrepresented minority scientists who may return to their respective undergraduate institutions as faculty, thereby attacking the diversity issue on both the student and faculty levels.