Nanoscale NMR - Tackling the Next Frontiers in Environmental Research

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The CMOS based NMR sensor technology, requested here will be central to all research programs in the Environmental Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Centre (University of Toronto). This includes programs focusing on soil structure, soil remediation, climate change, aquatic contaminant transport, carbon cycling, sustainable agriculture, atmospheric chemistry and sub-lethal toxicity. This research is in collaboration with over 600 users/co-PI's from Universities across Canada (and International), numerous Canadian companies, and government agencies including Environment Canada, Health Canada, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, National Water research Institute and the Alberta Research Council. The technology requested uses active electronics directly interfaced to miniaturized detection coils to overcome losses in transmission lines and open up a new microscopic world to NMR. The technology permits detection of picomoles (1 scan) and femtomoles (overnight) which represents > ~6 order of magnitude sensitivity increase for mass limited samples when compared to traditional NMR. The technology developed between Annaida Technologies, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and leading NMR console manufacturers, will represent the first commercial CMOS NMR sensors outside Europe and the world's first dual tuned CMOS technology specifically engineered to permit high resolution 2D heteronuclear NMR essential for environmental research. ******The technology will allow the NMR Centre to enter into a much wider array of collaborations and projects (traditionally limited by the amount of sample required for conventional NMR). New types of samples (for example, individual air particles and tiny living aquatic eggs and cells) can be addressed, while the increased mass sensitivity will permit 2D NMR on mass limited samples for the first time. The approach will provide critically needed molecular information, examples include; 1) detailed characterization of fine air particulate fractions that are responsible for many respiratory diseases; 2) exact isomeric structure determination of key bio-accumulative contaminants when mass spectrometry standards are not available; 3) real-time metabolic monitoring in living neonates, eggs and cells, critical to explain if complex matrices (waste water, agrochemical runoff) are safe for life, as-well as identify the stressors responsible and the mechanisms of stress (toxic-mode-of-action). In summary the technology requested will be used to address some of the most challenging questions in environmental research and provide vital molecular information essential to explain some of the most complex and problematic issues currently faced in the field. The technology will allow the Environmental NMR Centre to pioneer nanoscale NMR and become the Centre for trace and mass-limited environmental analysis globally. **