CAREER: Elliptic Dichroism Microscopy for Cellular Stereochemistry Analysis

生物分子的三维结构在其功能中起着非常重要的作用。用于测量活细胞中生物分子结构的廉价和可广泛使用的工具仍然不足。该学院早期职业发展计划(CALEAR)项目旨在开发和验证椭圆二向色性显微镜(EDM)系统，该系统将提供一个低成本的生物成像平台来推进立体化学细胞研究。研究活动将与教育活动相联系，创建关于翻译生物医学设备设计的高质量课程内容。外展活动将通过学生主导的STEM研讨会吸引年轻和老年一代。这个职业项目旨在开发一种新型的椭圆二向色性显微镜，它将显著扩展细胞分析的范围，以实时和无标记的方式提供对细胞动态平衡的更深入的了解，并在基础生物学研究到癌症诊断的领域找到广泛的应用。将研究不同类型的腺癌细胞的立体化学成像特征，目的是将细胞立体化学特征与生物功能联系起来。该项目将能够对细胞蛋白质的立体化学性质、通过立体化学签名对细胞进行分类、通过定位特征结构来分配细胞能量以及通过特征结构的生物功能进行新的生物学研究。研究目标与在课堂上引入先进显微镜的产品导向学习(POL)的教育目标相结合。外展活动将以老年人为重点，举办由学生主导的关于癌症基本知识和高级光学癌症检测的教育研讨会。该项目由生物光子学计划和既定的刺激竞争研究计划(EPSCoR)联合资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The 3D structure of biomolecules plays a prominent role in their function. Inexpensive and broadly accessible tools for measuring biomolecule structure in live cells remain inadequate. This Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) project aims to develop and validate an elliptical dichroism microscopy (EDM) system that will provide a low-cost bioimaging platform to advance stereochemical cellular study. The research activities will be linked to educational activities, creating high-quality course content on translational biomedical device design. Outreach activities will engage young and senior generations through student-led STEM seminars.This CAREER project aims to develop a novel elliptical dichroism microscope that will significantly expand the scope of cellular analysis, provide deeper insight into cell homeostasis in a real-time and label-free way, and find broad applications in areas spanning basic biological research to cancer diagnosis. The stereochemical imaging signature over diverse adenocarcinoma cell types will be investigated, with the goal of linking cellular stereochemical signature and biological functions. The project will enable new biological studies into stereochemical properties of cellular proteins, cell classification through stereochemical signature, cellular energy distribution by localization of featured structures, and biological functions of featured structures. The research goals integrate with the educational objectives of introducing product-oriented learning (POL) on advanced microscopy in class. The outreach activities will focus on senior citizens by hosting student-led educational seminars about basic cancer knowledge and advanced optical cancer detection.This project is jointly funded by the Biophotonics Program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.