IDBR: TYPE A- The ThruProt Analyzer: Bringing Proteomics to the Field Using a Sample-to-Answer Electronic Multiplexed Platform

新不伦瑞克罗格斯大学被授予开发一种电池供电的手持灵敏仪器的奖项，该仪器的目的是检测蛋白质面板，用于现场环境监测。便携式蛋白质分析设备几乎影响到生物学的所有领域，也影响到生物医学科学的所有领域。环境样本的蛋白质分析通常需要收集和存储样本，并在几周到几个月后返回实验室开始分析数据。相反，拟议的仪器将允许对生物样本进行现场分析。这项研究的结果将是一种手持式的仪器，可以根据各个生物实验室的需要进行推广。这一颠覆性的工具将对基础生物学以及临床、生物技术和农业研究具有重要价值。这一工具还将产生更大的社会效益，包括改进农业实践和更深入地了解环境生物学，这是保护环境所必需的。这是一项结合了工程、纳米制造、化学、物理和生物的多学科工作，为教育和培养研究生、本科生和高中生提供了一个很好的机会。拟议研究的重要教育成果之一包括建立教学模块，这些模块将被纳入生物传感器和生物仪器开发的大规模在线开放课程(MOOC)。将与罗格斯科学多样性和学术成功办公室开展合作，以吸引未被充分代表的学生参与STEM规律的研究。拟议开发的样品到答案便携式蛋白质分析仪将利用1)芯片上的微流控样品制备，2)用于定量低丰度蛋白质的去耦合数字蛋白质检测，3)用于实现多路复用能力的珠子的纳米电子条形码，以及4)基于芯片上磁体的流体蠕动泵，用于保持超紧凑的足迹。纳米电子条形码的工作原理是在微粒表面制造可调谐的纳米电容器，有效地调制颗粒的频率相关介电特性，允许将一个珠状条形码与另一个区分开来，可能达到100倍多路复用的规模。通过对建议仪器的所有关键模块使用基于电子的解决方案，可以显著降低读出仪器的成本和尺寸，从而真正实现现场分析。这些设备将在现场通过环境样本进行验证，并对绿藻微氯藻的一组光合作用蛋白质进行检测极限、准确性和分析时间的基准测试。结果将通过在专业会议上的陈述和提交给同行评议的期刊与工程学和实验生物学社区分享。该仪器的研究价值将通过与罗格斯生物定量生物学研究所和罗格斯综合蛋白质组研究中心的伙伴关系广泛传播。为了准备技术的商业化和广泛的分销，将与罗格斯新兴技术创新风险投资中心和罗格斯技术商业化办公室密切合作。

An award is made to Rutgers University New Brunswick to develop a battery powered handheld sensitive instrument whose purpose is to detect panels of proteins for field based environmental monitoring. A portable device for protein analysis virtually impacts all fields of biology and also the biomedical sciences. Protein analysis of environmental samples typically requires collecting and storing samples and returning weeks to months later in labs to begin analyzing the data. The proposed instrument will instead allow for point-of-use on the field analysis of biological samples. The result of this research will be an instrument that is handheld and generalizable to the needs of individual biological laboratories. This disruptive tool will be valuable for basic biology, as well as clinical, biotechnological, and agricultural research. This tool will also have greater societal benefits including improving agricultural practices and deeper insights into environmental biology, which is necessary for protecting the environment. This is multidisciplinary work that combines engineering, nanofabrication, chemistry, physics, and biology and provides a great opportunity to educate and train graduate students, undergraduates, and high school students. One of the important educational outcomes of the proposed research includes building teaching modules that will be incorporated into a massive open online course (MOOC) in biosensor and bioinstrumentation development. Collaborations will be developed with the Rutgers Office for Diversity and Academic Success in the Sciences to attract under-represented students to the study of STEM disciplines.The proposed sample-to-answer portable protein analyzer to be developed will utilize 1) on-chip microfluidic sample preparation, 2) decoupled digital protein detection for quantification of low abundance proteins 3) nanoelectronic barcoding of beads for enabling multiplexing capability, and 4) on-chip magnet based fluidic peristaltic pumping for maintaining an ultra-compact footprint. Nanoelectronic barcoding works by fabricating tunable nano-capacitors on the microparticle surface, effectively modulating the frequency dependent dielectric properties of the particles allowing one bead barcode to be distinguished from another, potentially on the scale of 100-fold multiplexing. By using electronic based solutions for all of the key modules of the proposed instrument, the cost and size of the readout instrumentation can be significantly reduced, thus truly enabling on-the-field analysis. The devices will be validated in the field with environmental samples, benchmarking for detection limit, accuracy, and assay time for a panel of photosynthesis proteins from the green alga Picochlorum. The results will be shared with the engineering and experimental biology communities via presentations at professional meetings and submission to peer-reviewed journals. The research value of the instrument will be broadly disseminated through partnerships with the Rutgers BioMAPS Institute for Quantitative Biology and the Rutgers Center for Integrated Proteomic Research. To prepare for commercialization of the technology and broad distribution, there will be close collaboration with the Rutgers Center for Innovative Ventures of Emerging Technologies and the Rutgers Office of Technology Commercialization.