EAGER: A Novel Approach for Molecular-Scale Probing of Hierarchical Organic Assemblies at Mineral Interfaces

在这个EAGER提案中，康奈尔大学的Ludmilla Aristilde教授使用了一种新颖的实验工具组合，采用了分子生物学和分子表面化学两个不同领域的实验工具，旨在了解环境化学。具体来说，研究人员试图了解有机生物分子如何在矿物表面发生反应。这项研究对于了解有机物质（来自叶子、茎、根等的碳）如何在环境中循环利用很重要。这个高风险项目关注的是碳是如何在土壤中储存的。Aristilde教授还在开发一门新的课程，其中包括实验室模块，向学生介绍自然粒子的表面化学研究和纳米技术在这些表面研究中的应用。她在实验室为本科生提供研究机会，尤其是女性和少数族裔。本项目由环境化学科学、环境工程、地球生物学和低温地球化学项目支持，研究矿物相关土壤有机质的机制、稳定性和命运。这项研究对全球碳循环具有启示意义。分析技术的结合是新颖的，代表了一种独特的，跨学科的方法，特别是当研究工具从不同的学科，生物学和分子表面化学借鉴。探索了一种廉价的方法，用于在复杂有机基质的稳定同位素标记剖面中产生高选择性，使用生物催化平台。本项目利用细菌代谢，利用稳定同位素增强的多维核磁共振波谱技术，实现有机-矿物和有机-有机实体的新型分子探针。这个高风险、高回报的项目从复杂有机基质的双同位素标记版本中获得选择性。

In this EAGER proposal, Professor Ludmilla Aristilde of Cornell University uses a novel combination of experimental tools adopted from two different fields, molecular biology and molecular surface chemistry, with the aim of understanding environmental chemistry . Specifically, the researchers seek to understand how organic biomolecules react on mineral surfaces. This study is important to understand how organic matter (carbon from leaves, stems, roots, etc.) is recycled in the environment. This high risk project focuses on how carbon is stored in soil on a fundamental level. Professor Aristilde is also developing a new course offering, which includes laboratory modules, to introduce students both to the study of surface chemistry of natural particles and to the application of nanotechnologies to study these surfaces. She provides research opportunities in her lab for undergraduate students, especially women and underrepresented minorities. In this project, supported by the Environmental Chemical Sciences, Environmental Engineering, and Geobiology and Low Temperature Geochemistry Programs, the mechanisms, stability, and fate of mineral-associated soil organic matter is studied. This research has implications on the global carbon cycle. The combination of the analytical techniques is novel and represents a unique, interdisciplinary approach, especially as the research tools are borrowed from different disciplines, biology and molecular surface chemistry. An inexpensive approach for generating high selectivity in the stable-isotope labeling profile of a complex organic matrix using a biocatalytic platform is explored. This project uses bacterial metabolism to achieve new molecular probes for organo-mineral and organo-organo entities using stable isotope-enhanced multi-dimensional Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy. This high-risk, high-reward project obtains selectivity from dually isotopically-labeled versions of a complex organic matrix.