CAREER: Elliptic Dichroism Microscopy for Cellular Stereochemistry Analysis

生物分子的三维结构在其功能中起着重要作用。用于测量活细胞中的生物分子结构的廉价且广泛可用的工具仍然不足。该教师早期职业发展计划（CAREER）项目旨在开发和验证椭圆二色性显微镜（EDM）系统，该系统将提供低成本的生物成像平台，以推进立体化学细胞研究。研究活动将与教育活动联系起来，创建关于转化生物医学设备设计的高质量课程内容。该CAREER项目旨在开发一种新型的椭圆二色性显微镜，该显微镜将显著扩大细胞分析的范围，以实时和无标记的方式更深入地了解细胞内稳态，并在从基础生物学研究到癌症诊断的领域中找到广泛的应用。将研究不同腺癌细胞类型的立体化学成像特征，目的是将细胞立体化学特征与生物学功能联系起来。该项目将使新的生物学研究进入细胞蛋白质的立体化学性质，通过立体化学签名进行细胞分类，通过定位特征结构进行细胞能量分布，以及特征结构的生物学功能。研究目标与在课堂上引入先进显微镜产品导向学习（POL）的教育目标相结合。该项目由生物光子学计划（Biophotonics Program）和促进竞争性研究计划（EPSCoR）共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF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。

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.