A microscopy set-up for laser-induced fluorescence high speed detection in microfluidic platforms

需要为荧光显微镜高速成像装置提供资金，以便在用于药物发现和患者监测应用的微流控平台上进行分析。 使用微流控技术实现化学和生物系统的微型化是自然科学中最近但令人兴奋的趋势。埃尔维拉博士的研究计划旨在为健康应用开发高通量微流控平台，弥合学术研究和现实应用之间的差距。主要研究领域有两个。首先是开发体外仿生模型，允许在发现过程的早期预测候选药物的体内行为。这将使制药公司能够专注于最有前途的候选药物，并降低药物发现的成本。第二是开发基于医院的微流控患者监测技术，这将侧重于与领域专家的密切合作，以最终实现这些平台的商业化。这将为医生提供关于患者状态的更快、更便宜和更准确的信息。 埃尔维拉博士将于2017年1月开始担任维多利亚大学化学系新的终身教职助理教授。所要求的设备对埃尔维拉博士的研究计划的所有要素都是必不可少的，正如她在NSERC发现赠款中所描述的那样。所要求的设备是用于微流控平台中在线高通量激光诱导荧光检测和分析的显微镜装置。微流控技术允许在极快的时间范围内对微米级的流体进行高度可控的操作。这会给分析带来问题，因为检测速度必须在每秒数千的范围内，而且还因为检测到的分析物的量非常小，因为检测体积通常在毫微微微升的范围内。基于荧光的检测方法由于具有高灵敏度(单细胞和单分子检测)和定量的特点而被广泛应用于微流控技术中。 如果没有所需的设备，埃尔维拉博士将无法执行她提议的研究计划的大部分检测和分析。此外，缺乏这种设备将限制埃尔维拉博士团队中的研究人员的培训，并使他们与其他微流控实验室的同行相比处于劣势。

Funding is requested for a fluorescence microscopy high-speed imaging set-up to perform analytics on microfluidic platforms for drug-discovery and patient-monitoring applications. The miniaturisation of chemical and biological systems using microfluidic technologies is a recent but exciting trend in the natural sciences. Dr Elvira’s research program aims to develop high-throughput microfluidic platforms for health applications that bridge the gap between academic research and real-world application. There are two main research areas. The first is to develop in vitro biomimetic models that allow the prediction of the in vivo behaviour of drug candidates early on in the discovery process. This will enable pharmaceutical companies to focus on the most promising candidates and lower the costs of drug discovery. The second is to develop microfluidic hospital-based patient monitoring technologies, which will focus on close collaborations with domain specialists for the eventual commercialisation of these platforms. This will provide doctors with faster, cheaper and more accurate information on patient status. Dr Elvira will start her appointment as a new tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Victoria in January 2017. The equipment requested is essential for all elements of Dr Elvira’s research program, as described in her NSERC Discovery Grant. The equipment requested is a microscopy set-up for online, high-throughput laser-induced fluorescence detection and analysis in microfluidic platforms. Microfluidic technologies allow highly controllable manipulation of fluids on the micron scale in extremely fast timeframes. This causes problems with analysis since the rate of detection must be on the scale of thousands per second, but also because the amount of analyte detected is extremely small since detection volumes are usually on the scale of femto- to picolitres. Fluorescence-based detection methodologies are widely used in microfluidics because they are highly-sensitive (single cell and single molecule detection) and quantitative. If the equipment requested is not available, Dr Elvira will be unable to perform the majority of the detection and analytics for her proposed research program. In addition, the lack of this equipment will limit the training of researchers in Dr Elvira’s group and place them at a disadvantage compared to peers in other microfluidic laboratories.