URoL:ASC: Biosensors for Field Detection of Aqueous Heavy Metals: A Collaboration with Native American Communities

采掘业，特别是与核武器生产和能源生产有关的环境退化，使社会经济面临挑战的社区承受了极大的冲击。有毒重金属向天然水道以及农业和生活水源的扩散正在加速，特别是在水资源稀缺的干旱地区。用水者、研究人员和补救工作依赖于高度专业化和昂贵的集中式实验室设施，以量化溪流、灌溉渠和生活水源中的有毒重金属。无论是训练有素的人员还是非专业人员，这种分析都不适用于家庭或现场使用，因为这两种人员都希望获得易于使用、高度敏感的现场检测方法。该奖项将开发可利用的生物传感系统，以便在不需要中央实验室设施的情况下方便地检测有毒重金属。在这样做的过程中，它将受益于与水资源管理人员就关键污染物监测需求、方法的有效性和成功的部署战略进行的端到端磋商。这些社区中剧毒污染物构成的可怕威胁为招募一些最不具代表性的群体的学生参与这项研究提供了一个令人信服的背景。该项目将提供一个全面的培训、教育和推广计划，以招募、培训、留住和返回本土和经济上处于不利地位的科学和工程人才，以造福于他们的社区。数十年的铀开采在干旱的西南部美洲原住民和印度裔拉美裔社区的水源中留下了重金属污染的有毒遗产。迫切需要一种新的技术，这种技术需要最低限度的技术培训，并且可以用来快速筛查家中或田间是否存在这些毒物。在过去的30年里，体外选择方法已经被用来产生与许多重金属离子物种具有高亲和力和选择性的DNA序列。这些试剂可以构成高选择性生物传感器的基础，但它们尚未转化为在高度污染的社区和高度污染的废弃矿山附近的地点的常规应用。该奖项将在这些试剂的基础上开发一种简单易用但高效的现场使用生物传感技术，方法是(I)考虑来自最终用户社区的指导，以及(Ii)通过实施基本的理解和创新，这些理解和创新是通过NSF的了解生命规则的大想法赞助下以前的一些赠款获得的。这一多学科、多机构、以用户为导向的研究项目将应用这些先前基础研究工作的成果和创新，为美洲原住民、少数民族和低资源社区的水安全关键问题开发可现场部署的解决方案。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Socio-economically challenged communities have borne the highly disproportionate brunt of environmental degradation associated with extractive industries, especially those associated with production of nuclear weapons and energy production. Dispersal of toxic heavy metals into natural waterways as well as agricultural and domestic water sources is accelerating, especially in arid regions where water resources are scarce. Water users, researchers, and remediation efforts rely on highly specialized and costly centralized laboratory facilities to quantify toxic heavy metals in streams, irrigation canals and domestic water sources. Such analyses are not amenable to home or field-use by either trained or lay personnel, both of which desire access to easy-to-use, highly sensitive methods for field-based detection. This award will develop accessible biosensing systems for convenient detection of toxic heavy metals without the need for centralized laboratory facilities. In doing so, it will benefit from end-to-end consultation with water resource management personnel on critical contaminant sensing needs, efficacy of approaches, and successful deployment strategies. The dire threat posed by highly toxic contaminants in these communities provides a compelling context for recruiting students from some of the most under-represented groups to participate in the research. This project will provide a comprehensive training, education, and outreach program to recruit, train, retain, and return indigenous and economically disadvantaged scientific and engineering talent to benefit their communities. Decades of uranium extraction have left a toxic legacy of heavy metal contamination in water sources in Native American and Indo-Hispanic communities in the arid Southwest. There is a critical need for new technologies that require minimal technical training and can be used to rapidly screen for the presence of these toxicants in the home or the field. Over the past 30 years, in vitro selection methods have been used to generate DNA sequences that bind with high affinity and selectivity to many heavy metal ion species. These reagents can form the basis for highly selective biosensors, but they have not yet been translated for routine application in highly contaminated communities and sites in the vicinity of highly contaminated abandoned mines. This award will develop a simple-to-use, yet highly effective, biosensing technologies for field-use based on these reagents by (i) taking into consideration the guidance from their ultimate user communities, and (ii) by implementing fundamental understanding and innovations garnered through a number of previous grants funded under the auspices of the NSF’s Big Idea to Understand the Rules of Life. This multidisciplinary, multi-institutional, user-directed research project will apply the findings and innovations of these previous fundamental research efforts to develop field-deployable solutions for critical problems of water security in Native American, minority, and low-resource communities.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.