NSF Convergence Accelerator Track L: Portable Quantum-enhanced Sensing and Species Identification of Bioaerosols

生物气溶胶包括不同种类的空气传播颗粒，这些颗粒含有生物来源的物质，包括细菌、病毒、花粉、古细菌、真菌及其碎片和副产品。生物气溶胶直接影响短期和长期的人类、动物、植物和气候健康、生存能力以及相关的规模经济。尽管它们很重要，但对全球生物气溶胶大量排放的估计存在1-2个数量级的不确定性，而且确定生物气溶胶中的特定物种及其来源仍然很困难。该项目涉及发展一种趋同的、真实世界的化学传感方法，以促进对生物气溶胶的起源和时间演变的了解，并在需要时指导其缓解。该项目将提高针对生物气溶胶的传感器技术的技术准备水平，并提供生物气溶胶识别所需的一套传感器原型。通过开发多模式、可实地部署的生物气溶胶传感器，本研究具有减少传染病、过敏原和耐抗生素基因和生物体传播的潜力。该团队将利用与国家海洋和大气管理局、国防威胁减少局、联邦资助的研发中心（包括美国宇航局喷气推进实验室和国家标准与技术研究所）的联合项目，并包括美国私营部门在空间、航空航天和遥感领域的战略翻译合作伙伴。这一努力还将培养一支高素质、多样化的劳动力队伍，以非传统教育项目的记录为基础，为加州州立大学校园中历史上代表性不足的群体创造机会，并与大气化学、遥感和地球科学领域的工业、初创企业和非学术利益相关者合作，建立专业发展项目。这个多学科加速器团队将开发、测试、优化和结合基于晶体管的便携式生物传感器和量子增强传感器，以实现高灵敏度、高速、远程、多路复用、多模态和生物气溶胶的原位测量，包括识别微生物物种。该团队通过工程原型将传感器开发人员与传感器最终用户聚集在一起，以解决现实世界化学传感中的紧迫挑战：生物气溶胶。在第一阶段，该项目将展示一套传感器的原型：(1)一种便携式电子直接检测传感器，能够根据生物气溶胶中多种微生物的遗传特征量化其存在，具有1000个拷贝数或检测下限；(2)一种基于分子离子量子逻辑光谱的集成太赫兹传感器，可以在现场进行生物气溶胶的原位检测和鉴定；(3)一种使用片上频率梳的双梳光谱仪，用于现场生物气溶胶鉴定。这些传感器将得到锁频光学低语倏逝谐振器（FLOWER）平台、高光谱解混和传感器数据融合技术的支持。在第二阶段，该项目将与行业和非营利利益相关者合作，将这些传感器商业化并在现场部署。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。

Bioaerosols encompass diverse classes of airborne particles that contain materials of biological origin including bacteria, viruses, pollen, archaea, fungi, and their fragments and byproducts. Bioaerosols directly impact short-term and long-term human, animal, plant, and climate health, viability, and associated economies of scale. Despite their importance, estimates of global mass emissions of bioaerosols have uncertainties of 1-2 orders of magnitude and identifying specific species and their origins in bioaerosols remains difficult. This project involves the development of a convergent, real-world chemical sensing approach to advance understanding of the origins and temporal evolution of bioaerosols, and guide their mitigation, when needed. This project will advance the technology readiness level of sensor technologies targeting bioaerosols and deliver prototypes of a suite of sensors essential for bioaerosol identification. By developing multimodal, field-deployable bioaerosol sensors, this research holds the potential to reduce the spread of infectious diseases, allergens, and antibiotic-resistant genes and organisms. The team will leverage joint projects with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, federally funded research and development centers, including NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the National Insitute of Standards and Technology, and include strategic translation partners in the US private sector in space, aerospace, and remote sensing. This effort also will develop a highly qualified, diverse workforce, building on a track-record of non-traditional education programs, creating opportunities for historically underrepresented groups at Cal State campuses, and establishing professional development programming in collaboration with industry, startups, and non-academic stakeholders in atmospheric chemistry, remote sensing and geosciences.This multidisciplinary Accelerator team will develop, test, optimize, and combine transistor-based portable biosensors and quantum-enhanced sensors to achieve highly sensitive, high-speed, remote, multiplexed, multimodal, and in situ measurements of bioaerosols, including identifying microorganism species. The team brings together the sensor developers with the sensor end users via engineered prototypes to address a pressing challenge in real-world chemical sensing: bioaerosols. In Phase I, this program will demonstrate a prototype of a suite of sensors: (1) a portable electronic direct-detection sensor capable of quantifying the presence of multiple microorganisms in bioaerosols based on their genetic signatures with a 1000-copy-number or lower limit of detection, (2) an integrated terahertz sensor based on quantum-logic spectroscopy of molecular ions that can perform in-situ detection and identification of bioaerosols in the field, and (3) a dual-comb spectrometer using on-chip frequency combs for bioaerosol identification in the field. These sensors will be supported by the development of a frequency-locked optical whispering evanescent resonator (FLOWER) platform and hyperspectral unmixing and sensor data fusion techniques. In Phase II, this program will partner with industry and non-profit stakeholders to commercialize and deploy these sensors in the field.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.