A nanoscale thermocouple on a micromachined cantilever for intracellular temperature measurements

西奈山的伊坎医学院（Icahn School of Medicine）开发了一种亚细胞温度测量仪器，该仪器提供了高空间和时间分辨率。这种使能仪器将有助于解决基本科学问题，帮助研究人员获得重要的新知识。该仪器将能够以纳米级分辨率和微秒级响应时间在单个细胞表面和内部提供可靠的温度测量。该仪器将与原子力显微镜（AFMs）兼容，后者提供精细的力检测、空间控制和荧光成像能力。这些设备将向外部团体开放。结果和设计将通过同行评审的出版物、会议、网站和在线视频出版物传播。已经建立了商业化合作伙伴关系，以便在完全开发后将该仪器推向市场。旨在让少数族裔和经济弱势背景的青少年接触科学的教育拓展项目包括本科生暑期实习项目和每月一次的高中主持项目，其中包括互动演示和讨论。温度是最重要的生理变量之一，由于缺乏可靠的工具，在很大程度上没有在细胞水平上进行研究。亚细胞水平的热事件和温度梯度的测量对于理解细胞功能非常重要，因为许多生物物理和酶的过程可以通过适度的温度升高而大大加速。这种使能仪器具有变革性，因为通过测量温度和亚细胞水平的其他参数将产生新的知识。这种新仪器使这项研究成为可能，它将阐明由细胞分裂和突触刺激等完全不同的生理事件引起的局部和短暂的温度变化是如何影响这些事件的下游效应的。更好地理解这些温度依赖的生物物理过程可以更好地理解细胞和组织水平的正常功能以及疾病状态。这种新仪器的发现和比较研究可能会导致新的治疗方法，并使开发有针对性的专门的温度敏感药物输送系统成为可能。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

An award is made to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to develop an instrument for subcellular temperature measurements that offers high spatial and temporal resolution. This enabling instrumentation will aid in addressing basic scientific questions helping researchers derive significant new knowledge. The instrumentation will be able to uniquely provide reliable temperature measurements on the surface and inside single cells with nanoscale resolution and microseconds response time. The instrumentation will be compatible with atomic force microscopes (AFMs) that offer exquisite force detection, spatial control, and ability for fluorescence imaging. The devices will be made available to outside groups. Results and designs will be disseminated thought peer reviewed publications, conferences, websites, and online video publications. Commercialization partnerships have been established to bring this instrumentation to market once it is fully developed. Educational outreach programs to expose youths from minority and economically disadvantaged backgrounds to science include an undergraduate summer internship program and a monthly high school hosting program with interactive demonstrations and discussions. Temperature is one of the most important physiological variables and is largely not studied at the cellular level due to lack of reliable tools. The measurement of thermal events and temperature gradients at the subcellular level are of great importance to the understanding of cell function, since many biophysical and enzymatic processes can be substantially accelerated by modest increases in temperature. This enabling instrumentation is transformative in that new knowledge will be generated by measuring temperature along with other parameters at subcellular levels. The research made possible by this new instrumentation will shed light on how localized and transient changes in temperature, evoked by physiological events as disparate as cell division and synaptic stimulation, can influence the downstream effects of those events. Better understanding of these temperature-dependent biophysical processes could lead to better understanding of normal function at the cellular and tissue levels, and diseases states. Findings and comparative studies powered by this new instrument may lead to new treatments and enable the development of targeted specialized temperature-sensitive drug delivery systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.