Analyzer for Monitoring Personal Environmental Exposure to Fluids and Materials

描述(由申请者提供)：美国国立卫生研究院(NIH)的使命是“追求关于生命系统的性质和行为的基本知识，并应用这些知识来延长健康寿命和减轻疾病和残疾的负担的科学”。根据这一使命，美国国家环境健康科学研究所(NIEHS)发布了RFP专题，阐述了他们的目标和使命：“人类健康和人类疾病是由三个相互作用的因素造成的：环境暴露、遗传易感性和年龄。NIEHS的使命是通过了解每个组成部分以及它们之间的相互关系来减少环境原因造成的人类疾病和功能障碍的负担。”X射线光学系统(XOS)的拟议项目将为NIH和NIEHS的任务做出重大贡献，并满足NIEHS研究目标的需要。该项目涉及开发和应用一种低功耗、紧凑、可靠、易于操作的仪器，用于测量任何液体、凝胶或固体中的微量元素，这些液体、凝胶或固体可以均质，用于个人环境暴露评估。该分析仪可用于家庭、工作场所和娱乐场所，供正在研究和治疗重大疾病的患者使用，或用于个人和职业健康风险评估。众所周知，生物必需金属(铁、铜和锌)以及有毒微量元素(汞、铅、镉和砷)水平异常与许多健康疾病有关，如癌症、认知障碍和神经症状。在大多数神经退行性病变中，金属的存在是众所周知的，例如血清铜过多或脑内铁蓄积，这与威尔逊氏症、阿尔茨海默氏症和帕金森氏症有关。尽管这些金属具有公认的重要性，但在体液和组织中或在个人环境中的材料中，个人接触这些金属的情况并不是常规测量或监测的。这在很大程度上是由于现场或临床测量痕量金属的困难和费用。建议的分析仪基于新的、强大的、专有的单色双曲晶体(DCC)和多色多毛细管X射线光学技术，大大提高了元素分析的效率和灵敏度。这种新的分析仪有可能提供一种廉价、便携、坚固、安全、易于操作的元素分析仪，用于现场测量，几乎不需要样品准备。此外，这将降低基因、环境和健康倡议(GEI)和国家儿童研究(NCS)等大规模研究的成本。拟议的分析仪将促进遗传学和暴露研究之间亟需的联系，从而提高生活质量，同时降低与各种慢性病相关的医疗成本。 公共卫生相关性：拟议的新型、痕量元素、便携式个人环境暴露分析仪将使研究人员能够在家里或工作场所检查个人对有毒和生物必需微量元素的暴露，而不必通过中心实验室收集、存储、跟踪、运输、处置或转移样本。流体和材料分析仪可以在几分钟内检测和量化任何液体、凝胶或固体中的微量元素，这些元素可以通过使用廉价、紧凑、安全、可靠、易于使用的现场测量仪器进行均质。该仪器将通过加快研究能力，使新的研究能够更快地收集信息(即，将遗传和环境相关性联系起来)，通过毫不拖延地进行现场测试来降低研究成本，改进可用于特定患者群体(如阿尔茨海默氏症或哮喘)研究的研究数据，并促进家庭或职业健康评估的个人暴露测量，从而对公共卫生产生广泛和积极的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The mission of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is "science in pursuit of fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to extend healthy life and reduce the burdens of illness and disability." Pursuant to that mission, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) released the RFP topic stating their objective and mission that "human health and human disease result from three interactive elements: environmental exposure, genetic susceptibility, and age. The mission of NIEHS is to reduce the burden of human disease and dysfunction from environmental causes by understanding each of these components and how they interrelate." The proposed project from X-ray Optical Systems (XOS) will make a significant contribution for both the NIH and NIEHS Missions, as well as meet the needs of the NIEHS research objective. This project involves development and application of a low-power, compact, reliable, easy-to-operate instrument for measurement of trace elements in any liquid, gel, or solid that can be homogenized for individual environmental exposure assessment. The analyzer can be used in the home, place of employment, and recreational settings for patients undergoing study and treatment for major diseases or for individual and occupational health risk assessment. Abnormal levels of bio-essential metals (iron, copper, and zinc) as well as toxic trace elements (mercury, lead, cadmium, and arsenic) are known to be associated with many health disorders such as cancer, cognitive impairment, and neurological symptoms. The presence of metals is well-known in most neurodegenerative pathologies, such as excess serum copper or brain iron accumulation, which are associated with Wilson's, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease. In spite of their recognized importance, personal exposure to these metals is not routinely measured or monitored in body fluids and tissues or in materials in personal environments. This is due in large part to the difficulty and expense of trace metal measurements in the field or clinic. The proposed analyzer is based on new, powerful, proprietary, monochromatic doubly curved crystal (DCC) and polychromatic polycapillary x-ray optics technology that greatly increases the efficiency and sensitivity for elemental analysis. This new analyzer has the potential to offer an inexpensive, portable, robust, safe, easy-to-operate elemental analyzer for measurements taken on-site, with little or no sample preparation. Furthermore, this will reduce costs for large scale studies such as the Genes, Environment and Health Initiative (GEI), and the National Children's Study (NCS). The proposed analyzer will facilitate much needed links between genetics & exposure research leading to improvements in quality of life while reducing healthcare costs related to a variety of chronic conditions. Public Health Relevance: The proposed new, trace-element, portable, personal environmental exposure analyzer will enable researchers to examine individual exposure to toxic and bioessential trace elements in the home or place of employment without having to collect, store, track, ship, dispose, or transfer samples through central laboratories. The fluids and materials analyzer can be used to detect and quantify, in minutes, trace elements in any liquid, gel or solid that can be homogenized by using an inexpensive, compact, safe, reliable, simple-to-use instrument for on-site measurements. This instrument will have a broad, positive impact on public health by accelerating research capabilities, enabling new studies to more rapidly gather information, (i.e. to link the genetic and environmental correlations), reducing study costs by testing onsite without delays, improving research data available for studies of specific patient populations (such as Alzheimer's or Asthma), and facilitating individual exposure measurements for family or occupational health assessment.