Autonomous Sentinels for the Detection and Capture of Invasive Pathogens

1157962/中国这项拟议研究的目标是调查和开发用于病原体检测和捕获的自主哨兵。由这些哨兵组成的系统将模仿自然产生的生物防御系统的功能，如白细胞。这个自主的哨兵系统将有能力在液体环境中寻找入侵细菌、孢子和毒素，并检测和捕获它们。一旦检测到并捕获，就可以通过检索哨兵来移除入侵病原体。这些哨兵将由磁致伸缩材料建造，不需要机载电源。该项目的学术价值在于：1)本研究将通过理论模拟和实验验证，加深对磁致伸缩合金作为一类传感器材料的科学认识；2)将探索产生磁致伸缩动力推进的新方法。根据这项提议开发的新的自主哨兵技术预计将产生更广泛的影响，导致食品安全、生物安全、护理点、家庭护理和环境监测的设备过多。仅在食品安全领域，影响就可能是巨大的。每年有超过4800万美国人因食用受病原体污染的食物而患病。由此导致的食源性疾病将导致约12.8万人住院，3000多人死亡，花费超过300亿美元。在该项目下开发的自主哨兵可以用来在人类消费之前识别食物的污染。这将大大改善我们食品供应的安全，改善人类生活质量，减少人类痛苦和死亡，并限制世界上食源性疫情造成的生产力损失。

1157962/ChinThe goal of this proposed research is to investigate and develop autonomous sentinels for pathogen detection and capture. A system composed of these sentinels will mimic the function of naturally occurring biological defensive systems, such as white blood cells. This autonomous sentinel system will have the capability of seeking out invasive bacteria, spores and toxins in liquid environments, detecting and capturing them. Once detected and captured, the invasive pathogens can be removed by retrieving the sentinels. These sentinels will be constructed of magnetostrictive materials and require no onboard power. The Intellectual Merits of this project are: 1) this research will further the scientific understanding of magnetostrictive alloys as a class of materials for sensor applications through both theoretical simulations and experimental verification and 2) novel methods of generating magnetostrictive powered propulsion will be investigated. New autonomous sentinel technologies developed under this proposal are anticipated to have Broader Impacts leading to a plethora of devices for food safety, biosecurity, point of care, home care, and environmental monitoring. In the area of food safety alone, the impacts could be monumental. Every year over 48 million Americans become ill due to eating pathogen contaminated foods. The resulting foodborne illnesses will lead to the hospitalization of approximately 128,000 people and the death of more than 3,000 at a cost of over $30 billion dollars. The autonomous sentinels developed under this project could be used to identify contamination of foods before human consumption. This would substantially improve the safety of our food supply, improve the quality of human life, reduce human suffering and deaths, and limit lost productivity due to foodborne outbreaks in the world.