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

在采掘业，特别是与核武器生产和能源生产有关的采掘业造成的环境退化中，社会经济困难的社区首当其冲。有毒重金属扩散到自然水道以及农业和家庭水源的速度正在加快，特别是在水资源稀缺的干旱地区。水资源使用者、研究人员和补救工作依赖高度专业化和昂贵的集中实验室设施来量化溪流、灌溉渠和生活水源中的有毒重金属。这样的分析不适合由受过训练的或外行人员在家中或现场使用，这两者都希望获得易于使用的、高灵敏度的方法用于基于现场的检测。该奖项将开发可访问的生物传感系统，以方便检测有毒重金属，而无需集中实验室设施。在此过程中，它将受益于与水资源管理人员就关键污染物传感需求、方法的有效性和成功的部署战略进行的端到端协商。这些社区中剧毒污染物造成的可怕威胁为招募一些代表性最低的群体的学生参与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，保留和返回土著和经济上处于不利地位的科学和工程人才，以造福他们的社区。几十年的铀开采在干旱的西南部美洲原住民和印度-西班牙裔社区的水源中留下了重金属污染的有毒遗产。迫切需要新的技术，这些技术需要最低限度的技术培训，并可用于快速筛选这些有毒物质在家庭或现场的存在。在过去的30年里，体外选择方法已被用于产生DNA序列，结合具有高亲和力和选择性的许多重金属离子物种。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。该奖项将开发一种简单易用，但高效的生物传感技术，用于基于这些试剂的现场使用，通过（i）考虑到其最终用户社区的指导，以及（ii）通过实施基本的理解和创新，这些创新是通过NSF的Big Idea to Understand the Rules of Life资助的一些以前的赠款获得的。这个多学科，多机构，用户导向的研究项目将应用这些以前的基础研究工作的结果和创新，为美洲原住民，少数民族，和低-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进行评估，被认为值得支持的搜索.

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.