IDBR: TYPE A, Online Liquid Chromatography - Surface Enhanced Raman Detection for Metabolic Profiling

美国圣母大学（University of Notre Dame）获得了一项奖励，以开发一种与液相色谱（LC）兼容的在线表面增强拉曼散射（SERS）探测器，其目的是识别代谢物。开发用于LC的SERS检测器为研究生和本科生提供了一个独特的训练机会。培训一支多样化的科学工作队伍对于保持知识和技术密集型工业的高度集中是必不可少的，这些工业建造和使用化学仪器。该项目将开发技术和知识产权，这些技术和知识产权可以获得许可并进行商业营销，同时让学生了解这一过程。研究与PI教学的整合将为促进生化分析提供一个统一的平台，为研究生和本科生提供培训机会，以获得与学术研究和商业利益相关的研究技能。一个拓展项目将为来自邻近的全女子圣玛丽学院的学生提供这些本科研究机会。PI正在积极探索将研究基础设施用于正式课程和学生培训。开发的教学工具可以降低教育的财政成本，同时增加学生在科学研究过程中的参与度。代谢谱分析已成为系统生物学研究的重要工具。SERS已经证明了检测和识别分子的能力，这些分子是目前技术（如质谱分析（MS））难以表征的，因此将为与代谢相关的生化途径提供新的见解。该方法建立在我们最近的研究结果基础上，展示了高通量、高灵敏度、流中的SERS检测。产生SERS光谱的振动模式对分子结构敏感，可以区分在质谱检测中存在问题的异构体。LC-SERS应该为更常见的LC-MS提供补充表征，从而提供更完整的代谢组覆盖。为了证明代谢组学方法的实用性，将对葡萄糖刺激后的β细胞进行代谢谱分析。通过开发一种在线工作的方法，可以避免不同的样品制备，便于其他人采用。

An award is made to the University of Notre Dame to develop an online surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detector compatible with liquid chromatography (LC) whose purpose is to identify metabolites. Developing the SERS detector for LC provides a unique training opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students. Training a diverse scientific workforce is essential to maintaining the high concentration of knowledge- and technology- intensive industries building and utilizing chemical instrumentation. This project will develop technology and intellectual property that can be licensed and marketed commercially while exposing students to this process. Integration of the research with the PI's teaching will provide a unified platform for promoting biochemical analysis, providing training opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students to gain research skills relevant to academic research and commercial interests. An outreach program will provide these undergraduate research opportunities to students from the neighboring, all-woman, St. Mary's College. The PI is actively exploring leveraging research infrastructure for both formal coursework and student training. The pedagogical tools developed may reduce the fiscal cost of education while increasing student engagement in the scientific research process. Metabolic profiling has become a valuable tool for systems biology studies. SERS has demonstrated the ability to detect and identify molecules that are challenging to characterize by current technology, such as mass spectrometry (MS), and thus will provide new insights into biochemical pathways associated with metabolism. The approach builds from our recent results demonstrating high-throughput, high-sensitivity, SERS detection in flow. The vibrational modes that give rise to the SERS spectra are sensitive to molecular structure and can differentiate between isomeric species that are problematic in MS detection. LC-SERS should provide complementary characterization to the more common LC-MS, thus providing more complete coverage of the metabolome. To demonstrate the utility of the approach for metabolomics, metabolic profiling will be performed on beta-cells following glucose stimulation. By developing a method that works inline, different sample preparations can be avoided, facilitating adoption by others.