"Characterization of biological systems with vibrational spectroscopy, microspectroscopy, and computational modelling"

在我的研究小组中，我们使用可见光和红外光来探测物质的组成。这种技术被称为振动光谱学，其原理是分子很像音叉。当音叉碰到像桌子这样的固体时，音叉就会振动。为了使分子振动，我们用储存在光子中的能量来瞄准它们。如果波长合适，分子可以吸收能量并开始振动：化学键伸展、扭曲和摇摆。每个分子都吸收一组独特的光能，这取决于原子的数量和类型，以及这些原子相互连接的方式。这种吸收模式是一种分子特征，称为光谱。我的学生学习如何从这些特征中反向工作，以获得有关我们样品的分子结构和组成的信息。从被吸收的光的数量可以获得更多的信息；总量最终取决于每种成分的含量。在过去的十年里，一个主要的进步是成功地将基本仪器与光学匹配的显微镜与ccd式相机探测器相结合。在NSERC的资助下，我和两位合作者获得了一台拉曼显微镜（激光）和一台红外显微镜，在曼尼托巴大学建立了光谱显微镜成像实验室（SMILab）。利用最先进的光学和红外仪器，我和我的学生将利用我的发现基金来表征微生物（真菌、地衣、海冰藻类）、中枢神经系统组织和活细胞的光谱特征。我们的研究成功将帮助我们识别产生有价值的天然产物的微生物，使我们更好地了解光和营养胁迫对加拿大北极微生物的影响，并生产实用的设备和方案，以便在生物学相关的长度和时间尺度上对活细胞的化学进行成像。总之，我们的进步将使光谱化学成像进入主流实践。我的学生将获得对加拿大经济做出贡献的技能，有利于北极生态，并为生物技术和其他行业带来新的机会。

In my research group, we use visible and infrared light to probe the composition of matter. This technique, called vibrational spectroscopy, works on the principle that molecules are a lot like tuning forks. When struck against something solid, like a table, a tuning fork vibrates. To make molecules vibrate, we target them with the energy stored in photons of light. If the wavelength is just right, a molecule can absorb that energy and begin to vibrate: bonds stretch, twist and rock. Every molecule absorbs a single, unique set of light energies that depend on the number and type of atoms and the ways in which these atoms are connected to each other. This absorption pattern is a molecular signature, called a spectrum. My students learn how to work backward from these signatures to get information about the molecular structure and composition of our samples. Even more information can be obtained from the amount of light that is absorbed; the total ultimately depends on how much of each component is present. A major advance in the last decade has been the successful coupling of basic instruments to an optically-matched microscope with a CCD-style camera detector. With assistance from NSERC funding, two collaborators and I acquired a Raman microscope (laser light) and an Infrared microscope, to establish the Spectral Microscopy Imaging Laboratory (SMILab) at the University of Manitoba. Taking advantage of the most advanced optical and infrared instrumentation, my students and I will use my Discovery Grant to characterize spectral signatures from microorganisms (fungi, lichen, sea ice algae), from Central Nervous System tissue, and from living cells. Our research success will help us to identify microorganisms that produce valuable natural products, give us better knowledge on the influence of light and nutrient stress on microorganisms in Canada's arctic, and produce practical devices and protocols for imaging the chemistry of living cells at biologically relevant length and time scales. Together, our advances will bring spectrochemical imaging into mainstream practice. My students will gain skills that contribute to the Canadian economy, benefit Arctic ecology and lead to new opportunities in biotechnology and other industries.