MRI: Instrumentation Acquisition for the Development of a Wet Facility for Nano-Bioengineering

本NSF MRI奖的目标是开发纳米生物工程湿设备，该设备采用纳米工程来表征细胞到分子水平的生物系统。该设施将是独一无二的，因为它将提供能够在其生理环境中表征活生物系统的实验室设备。该设施的研究重点是基于纳米技术和生物工程的合并，这两个新兴领域都有希望在组织工程，细胞力学，生物过程和成像领域取得重大科学突破。该设施将为创建工程材料或设备的新型合成所必需的仿生框架提供资源。该设施的影响将跨越机械工程、电气工程、生物工程和材料科学等学科，以及化学、生物学和医学等一般领域。该设施获得的设备将为细胞、蛋白质、界面和生物纳米结构的纳米级表征提供必要的工具。发展这一设施的方法是购置几套大型配套设备，由于初始成本高和相关的长期维护，任何教员都很难单独购置这些设备。因此，他们建议使用NSF计划的资金购买以下系统：用于细胞和组织操作研究的原子力显微镜和带有流体室的纳米压痕机，用于细胞成像和操作的共聚焦显微镜，用于表征蛋白质结合的红外光谱仪和高压液相色谱系统，以及用于研究生物材料亚结构形态的环境扫描电子显微镜。

0079243PruittThe objective of this NSF MRI Award is to develop a Wet Facility for Nano-Bioengineering that employs nanoengineering for the characterization of cellular to molecular-level biological systems. The facility will be unique in that it will provide laboratory equipment that enables characterization of living biological systems in their physiological environments. The research focus of the facility is based on the merger of nanotechnology and bioengineering which are both emerging fields with promise of great scientific breakthroughs in the area of tissue engineering, cell mechanics, biological processes, and imaging. The facilities will provide the resources for creating a biomimetic framework necessary for novel synthesis of engineered materials or devices. The impact of this facility will span the disciplines of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, bioengineering, and materials science, as well as the general areas of chemistry, biology and medicine. The acquired equipment for this facility will provide the necessary tools for nanoscale characterization of cells, proteins, interfaces, and BioMEMs structures. The approach to developing this facility is to acquire several large pieces of complementary equipment that would be difficult for any single faculty member to acquire alone because of the large initial cost and associated long-term maintenance. Thus, they propose to purchase the following systems using funds from this NSF initiative: an atomic force microscope and nanoindenter with fluid chambers for cell and tissue manipulation studies, a confocal microscope for cell imaging and manipulation, an infrared spectrometer and high pressure liquid chromatography system for characterization of protein binding, and an environmental scanning electron microcope to study substructure morphology of biomaterials.