A pocket-sized device for personal exposure level assessment

描述(申请人提供)：一个口袋大小的设备，用于个人暴露水平评估！环境毒物的检测对于更好地了解化学物质暴露与多种疾病的关系，以及更有效地预防相关疾病是至关重要的。由于个体的遗传易感性和环境暴露水平差异很大，理想的检测工具必须小型化、负担得起和个性化，以便能够实时测量每个人的呼吸区内的毒物。除少数选定的分析物外，目前的方法是收集 在特定地点和时间采集空气样本，并使用复杂但昂贵且难以操作的设备，如气相色谱和质谱仪，将样本运送到实验室进行详细分析。本项目的目标是通过引入一种新的传感器技术来满足上述需要，重点放在有害的分析物质上，例如致癌物质，这些物质很重要，但目前没有被任何现有的便携式设备覆盖。该传感器技术基于一种创新的混合原理，该原理将智能采样和分离机制与灵敏的微制造石英音叉阵列和选择性分子印迹聚合物传感材料相结合，通过微型化设备实现高特异性和高灵敏度。该设备是口袋大小的，包含一个蓝牙芯片，可以与手机或其他支持蓝牙的设备进行无线通信。这项新技术将为个人环境暴露监测提供前所未有的高时间和高空间分辨率，这将使大型环境健康研究社区受益，支持正在进行和未来的大规模人口研究，并对工业和职业安全和环境监测产生影响。该团队将在第一阶段开发、建造和测试该设备，他们将与包括流行病学家、行业卫生员、职业安全专业人员和环境科学家在内的既定合作伙伴进行验证，并为第二阶段设备的生产做准备。 与公共健康相关：将开发一种低成本和小型化的混合设备来检测、量化和识别有毒的挥发性化合物。该设备的一个特别重点是提供原本无法获得的高质量化学品暴露信息。该项目的目标是开发、测试、验证和生产一种前所未有的工具，以推进室内和室外环境健康研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A pocket-sized device for personal exposure level assessment! Abstract Detecting environmental toxicants is critical for better understanding of the relationship between chemical exposures and many diseases, and for more effective prevention of the related diseases. Due to large variations in the individuals' genetic susceptibility and environmental exposure level, an ideal detection tool must be miniaturized, affordable and personalized so that it can measure the toxicants in real time and within each individual's breathing zone. Except for a few selected analytes, the current approach is to collect air samples at a certain location and time, and transport the samples to a lab for detailed analysis using sophisticated but expensive and difficult-to-operate equipment, such as gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. The goal of the present project is to address the above need by introducing a new sensor technology, focusing on harmful analytes, such as carcinogens, which are important but currently not covered by any of the existing portable devices. The sensor technology is based on an innovative hybrid principle that combines intelligent sampling and separation mechanisms with a sensitive microfabricated quartz tuning fork array and selective molecular imprinted polymer sensing materials to achieve high specificity and high sensitivity with a miniaturized device. The device is pocket-sized and contains a Bluetooth chip that communicates wirelessly with cell phones or other Bluetooth-enabled devices. The new technology will provide unprecedented high temporal and high spatial resolutions for personal environmental exposure monitoring, which will benefit a large environmental health research community, support ongoing and future large-scale population studies, and impact on industrial and occupational safety and environmental monitoring. The team will develop, build and test the device in phase I. They will validate it with established collaborations, including epidemiologists, industry hygienists, occupational safety professionals and environmental scientists, and prepare for production of the device in phase II. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: A low cost and miniaturized hybrid device will be developed to detect, quantify, and identify toxic volatile chemical compounds. A particular focus of the device is to provide otherwise unavailable high quality chemical exposure information. The goal of the project is to develop, test, validate and produce an unprecedented tool to advance environmental health studies in both indoor and outdoor settings.