An Echelle Spectrometer to Enable Novel Diagnostic Tests Using High-Resolution Time-Resolved Laser-Induced Plasma Emission Spectroscopy

将获得的仪器将使我们实验室能够开发新的医疗诊断测试。它将使我们能够对生物医学标本进行敏感的测量，并快速识别可能导致人类疾病的有害细菌。我们将获得一台宽带Echelle光谱仪，用于分析激光诱导等离子体发射的光，这些等离子体是当强大的激光脉冲聚焦到目标材料上非常紧密的光斑时产生的。令人难以置信的激光脉冲能量将物质一个原子一个原子地撕裂，产生一个紧凑但非常热的火花，称为“等离子体”。这种等离子体发出的光包含了组成目标材料的原子和分子的信息。这一过程很容易控制，几乎可以在任何材料上产生等离子体。这使得它成为一种非常强大和有吸引力的工具，可以快速而轻松地确定未知目标的组成。通过向含有细菌的标本发射激光并分析发出的光，我们已经证明了我们可以唯一地识别该标本中的细菌。这种实时检测和识别细菌病原体的能力在人类健康的许多方面都很重要，包括临床医学和医院、执法和急救社区、食品和饮料污染监测以及饮用水/游泳水的清洁和安全。所有加拿大人都将受益于实施一项快速技术，以保护他们免受有害细菌的影响，或在他们受到感染时进行快速诊断。我们现在正在尝试分析生物医学标本(如脑脊液或痰)，我们还开发了一种协议，从标准的临床“拭子”中获取和测试病原菌，这些拭子用于检测表面(如电话或床轨)上的微生物。为了扩展这项工作，需要一种新的高分辨率和高灵敏度的光谱仪来分析细菌数量非常少时形成的等离子体所产生的光。最后，通过在温莎培训使用这类设备的高素质人员，我们正在培养加拿大科学家和研究人员，使他们在开发这一令人兴奋的新科学技术方面发挥主导作用。这些年轻的科学家站在多个学科的十字路口，正在从几个科学领域学习有价值的技术和战略。我们还在培训他们设计、制造和使用下一代高科技光学设备。

The instrumentation to be acquired will enable the development of novel medical diagnostic tests in our laboratory. It will allow us to make sensitive measurements of biomedical specimens and rapidly identify harmful bacteria that can cause human disease. We will acquire a broadband Echelle spectrometer to analyze the light emitted by laser-induced plasmas that are created when a powerful pulse of laser light is focused to a very tight spot onto a target material. The incredible energy of the laser pulse rips the material apart atom by atom, creating a compact but very hot spark called a "plasma." The light emitted by such a plasma contains information about which atoms and molecules made up the target material. This process is easy to control and the plasma can be created on almost any material. This makes it a very powerful and attractive tool for rapidly and easily determining the composition of an unknown target. By firing the laser at a specimen which contains bacteria and analyzing the light given off, we have shown we can uniquely identify the bacteria in that specimen. This ability to detect and identify bacterial pathogens in real-time is important in many facets of human health, including clinical medicine and in hospitals, in the law-enforcement and first-responder communities, in food and beverage contamination monitoring, and in drinking/swimming water cleanliness and safety. All Canadians would benefit from the implementation of a rapid technology to protect them from exposure to harmful bacteria or for rapid diagnosis if they were infected. We are now attempting to analyze biomedical specimens (like cerebral spinal fluid or sputum) and we have also developed a protocol to obtain and test pathogenic bacteria from standard clinical "swabs" used to detect the presence of microbes on surfaces (like telephones or bed rails.) To extend this work, a new high-resolution and high-sensitivity spectrometer is required to analyze the light obtained from plasmas formed when the number of bacteria is very small. Lastly, by training highly-qualified personnel in the use of this type of equipment in Windsor, we are preparing Canadian scientists and researchers to play a lead role in the development of this exciting new scientific technique. These young scientists stand at the crossroads of multiple disciplines and are learning valuable techniques and strategies from several scientific fields. We are also training them to be able to design, build, and utilize the next generation of high-technology optical apparatus.