MRI: Acquisition of an Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer: A Hub for Fundamental Interdisciplinary Chemical Research, Applications, and Research Training

授予汉普郡学院（马萨诸塞州阿默斯特）购买和安装电感耦合等离子体质谱仪（ICP-MS）。新一代ICP-MS将使广泛的研究项目成为可能，特别是专注于污染和营养，同时培养跨学科研究的多元化本科生群体。 一些将使公众受益的进展包括识别和量化有毒微量金属污染物，如砷，锑，镉和铅在现在和过去的环境和分析组织水平的吸收和纳入营养重要的元素，如锌和铁在人类牙齿和头发。ICP-MS还将用于开发新的方法来跟踪环境和生物组织中有毒金属污染物和金属纳米颗粒的命运，运输和易位。 这些化学分析方面的进展将促进更好的水和粮食系统环境监测方法，从而改善公众健康并支持粮食安全。ICP-MS将使研究人员能够参与和支持五所大学联盟的新的和现有的研究伙伴关系，并加强与更广泛的区域和国际学术机构的合作，以解决国家和全球利益的更大的环境健康研究问题。该项目由核心教师团队推动，他们寻求实现三个计划的本科研究和课程进展：（1）将ICP-MS与原子光谱技术[激光消融（LA）-ICP-MS，离子色谱（IC）-ICP-MS]的伴随进展结合起来，作为拟议的跨学科研究项目的一部分;（2）基于ICP-MS研究粘土负载的纳米零价离子颗粒的可能的有毒准金属吸附性质的能力，扩大本科跨学科研究项目的范围，工程纳米颗粒（ENP）的命运和运输特性，牙齿和头发存档组织中有毒金属的组织水平分布，以揭示过去的暴露事件，主食谷物的元素生物成像，以了解组织水平的营养益处和健康风险，岩石清漆的地质微生物学;（3）在本科课程中纳入最先进的原子光谱法，包括课程和独立项目。建议的项目集中在分析原子光谱法，分析方法的开发和验证。开发的方法将应用于由学生和教师研究团队进行的各种创新的跨学科研究项目，这些项目将推动环境健康监测工作。研究的主要发现和数据将由学生和教师在国家和国际会议上提出，并发表在同行评审的期刊上。此外，还将通过地方外联工作和大众媒体论坛向公众传播调查结果。

An award is made to Hampshire College (Amherst, MA) to acquire and install an inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). The new generation ICP-MS will make possible a wide range of research projects, particularly focused on pollution and nutrition, while training a diverse group of undergraduate students in interdisciplinary research. Some of the advances that will benefit the general public include the identification and quantification of toxic trace metal pollutants such as arsenic, antimony, cadmium, and lead in present and past environments and analysis of the tissue-level uptake and incorporation of nutritionally important elements such as zinc and iron in human teeth and hair. ICP-MS will also be used to develop novel methods to track the fate, transport, and translocation of toxic metal contaminants and metal nano particles in the environment and in biological tissues. These analytical chemical advances will facilitate better environmental monitoring methods for water and food systems that will improve public health and will support food security. The ICP-MS will allow the researchers to engage and support new and existing research partnerships across the Five College Consortium, as well as to enhance collaborations with broader regional and international academic institutions to address larger environmental health research questions of national and global interest. This project is driven by a team of core faculty, who seek to achieve three planned undergraduate research and curricula advances: (1) incorporation of the ICP-MS, with accompanying advances in atomic spectrometry techniques [laser ablation (LA)-ICP-MS, ion chromatography (IC)-ICP-MS], as part of the proposed interdisciplinary research projects; (2) expansion of the scope of undergraduate interdisciplinary research projects based on the ability of ICP-MS to investigate possible toxic metalloid adsorption properties of clay supported nano zero valent ion particles, the fate and transport properties of engineered nano particles (ENP), tissue level distributions of toxic metals in archived tissues of teeth and hair to unravel past exposure events, elemental bioimaging of staple food grains to gain insight on nutritional benefits and health risks at tissue level, the geo-microbiology of rock varnishes; and (3) incorporation of state-of-the-art atomic spectrometry methods across the undergraduate curriculum, including within courses and independent projects. Proposed projects center on analytical atomic spectrometry, analytical method development, and validation. The developed methods will be applied in a variety of innovative interdisciplinary research projects conducted by student-faculty research teams that will advance the environmental health monitoring efforts. Major findings and data from research will be presented by students and faculty at national and international meetings and published in peer-reviewed journals. As well, the results will be disseminated to the public via local outreach efforts and popular media forums.