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

汉普郡学院(马萨诸塞州阿默斯特)获得并安装了一台电感耦合等离子质谱仪(ICPMS)。新一代电感耦合等离子体质谱将使广泛的研究项目成为可能，特别是关注污染和营养，同时培训不同的本科生群体进行跨学科研究。一些将惠及公众的进展包括识别和量化现在和过去环境中有毒的微量金属污染物，如砷、锑、镉和铅，以及分析组织水平对人类牙齿和头发中营养重要元素如锌和铁的吸收和并入。电感耦合等离子体质谱还将用于开发新的方法来跟踪有毒金属污染物和金属纳米颗粒在环境和生物组织中的去向、迁移和转移。这些分析化学进展将促进水和食品系统更好的环境监测方法，从而改善公众健康并支持粮食安全。ICP-MS将允许研究人员参与和支持五所学院联盟内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，以解决涉及国家和全球利益的更大的环境健康研究问题。该项目由一个核心教员团队推动，他们试图实现三个计划中的本科研究和课程进步：(1)纳入电感耦合等离子体质谱仪，并伴随原子光谱分析技术的进步[激光烧蚀(LA)-电感耦合等离子体质谱(IC)-电感耦合等离子体质谱(IC)-电感耦合等离子体质谱仪]，作为拟议的跨学科研究项目的一部分；(2)扩大本科跨学科研究项目的范围，依据的是电感耦合等离子体质谱仪(ICPMS)对粘土支撑的纳米零价离子粒子可能具有的有毒类金属的吸附性能、工程纳米粒子(ENP)的去向和传输特性、为揭示以往暴露事件而存档的牙齿和头发组织中有毒金属的组织水平分布、主要食物颗粒的元素生物成像以了解组织水平的营养效益和健康风险、岩漆的地质微生物学；(3)在本科课程中纳入最先进的原子光谱分析方法，包括在课程和独立项目中的应用。建议的项目集中在分析原子光谱分析、分析方法开发和验证方面。开发的方法将应用于学生和教师研究团队开展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职员工在国内和国际会议上提出，并发表在同行评议的期刊上。此外，调查结果将通过地方外展工作和大众媒体论坛向公众传播。

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.