Highly Sensitive Biosensor Platform Using Optical Microring Resonators

描述(由申请人提供)： 这个辅导式职业发展奖为我提供了一条过渡到生物医学领域的绝佳途径。我获得了电子工程的博士学位，然后花了三年时间在工业上将光子学技术应用到网络中。尽管我的职业生涯有了一个成功的开端，正如我的出版物、奖项和发明披露所展示的那样，但研究前景对我来说并不吸引人。因此，十个月前，我获得密苏里大学生命科学博士后奖学金，进入范旭东教授的生物光子学实验室，开始了新的职业生涯。范旭东教授是这份申请的发起人。我们的研究重点是开发具有化学、环境和生物医学应用的光学传感器。在我来这里的短短时间里，我有四本第一作者的期刊出版物，还有几本是合著者。此外，我还在出席人数众多的会议上发表了三次演讲，并与人共同发明了三项提交给大学的发明披露。这一初步的成功只是朝着我的最终目标迈出的一小步，我的最终目标是成为一名教员，并领导一个将光子学和纳米技术应用于生物医学应用的研究小组。目前，在知识、培训和经验方面存在差距。然而，在这份申请中，我相信我已经设计了一个计划，使我能够获得实现我的职业目标所需的培训。我们将对三类光学传感器进行实验研究，包括无标记传感器、荧光量子点传感器和表面增强拉曼光谱传感器。我们的所有三种传感器架构都基于光学环形谐振器，这是一种相对较新的技术平台，利用了微尺寸介电物体中的光的共振模式。我们将朝着将环形谐振器传感技术应用于循环肿瘤细胞检测的最终目标而努力。实现这一点将为医生提供一个更早发现癌症的简单工具，以及更有效地监测治疗进展的能力。我们聚集了一批优秀的项目赞助商和合作者，以帮助实现这一积极的研究目标，并支持我在指导下的职业发展。相关性：该项目带来的技术进步将使新的疾病诊断、治疗和预防应用成为可能。各自的例子包括用于早期疾病诊断的微量生物标记物的检测，用于药物设计的小分子的检测，以及用于推进DNA研究的可能性的单个DNA核苷酸的识别。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This mentored career development award offers an excellent path for me to transition into the field of biomedical sciences. I received my Ph.D. in electrical engineering and then spent three years in industry applying photonics technology to networks. Despite a successful beginning to my career, as exhibited by my publications, awards, and invention disclosures, the research landscape was unappealing to me. As a result, ten months ago I began a new career upon obtaining the University of Missouri Life Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship with an appointment to the biophotonics lab of Prof. Xudong Fan, the sponsor on this application. Our research focuses on the development of optical sensors with chemical, environmental, and biomedical applications. During the short time that I have been here, I have four first-authored journal publications and several others as a co-author. Additionally, I have delivered three presentations at highly attended conferences and I have been a co-inventor on three invention disclosures filed with the university. This initial success is only a small step towards my ultimate goal of becoming a faculty member and leading a research group that is applying photonics and nanotechnology to biomedical applications. Currently, a gap in knowledge, training, and experience exists. However, in this application, I believe that I have designed a program to enable me to acquire the training that I need to accomplish my career goals. We will experimentally investigate three classes of optical sensors, including label-free sensors, fluorescent quantum dot sensors, and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy sensors. All three of our sensor architectures are based on optical ring resonators, a relatively new technology platform utilizing the resonating modes of light in micro-sized dielectric objects. We will be working towards the ultimate goal of applying the ring resonator sensing technology for the detection of circulating tumor cells. Accomplishing this would offer medical practitioners a simple tool for earlier detection of cancer, as well as the capability to monitor treatment progress more effectively. We have assembled an excellent collection of project sponsors and collaborators to assist in accomplishing this aggressive research goal, as well as to support me in my mentored career development. Relevance: The technological advances resulting from this project will enable new applications not possible today for disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Respective examples include the detection of trace amounts of biomarkers for early disease diagnosis, the detection of small molecules for drug design, and the identification of single DNA nucleotides for advancing the possibilities with DNA studies.