NIRT: Nanofluidic Networks for Single-Molecule Protein Analysis

项目摘要拟议的研究旨在开发实现基于聚合物的纳米流体网络的新方法，并将这些纳米纤维技术应用于单分子蛋白质分离的超灵敏生物分析仪器。复杂的生物样品如组织、肿瘤、血清或细胞可含有数千种蛋白质，范围从执行常见管家任务的高丰度蛋白质到可能以小至每个细胞单个分子的量存在的极低丰度蛋白质。该NIRT项目解决了对高分辨率、高灵敏度分离技术的需求，这些技术可以对超低摩尔浓度进行分类，直至单个蛋白质或肽水平，以进行识别。该项目的成功完成将产生新的超高灵敏度筛选战略，其应用范围从基础生物研究到疾病研究和药物发现。所提出的技术平台将基于纳米通道的单分子检测与集成样品操作相结合，为大规模蛋白质分析的样品消耗量的大幅减少开辟了潜力，其中蛋白质的数量极其有限，影响了基因组学，蛋白质组学和药物发现等行业关键领域。

Project Abstract The proposed research aims to develop novel approaches for realizing polymer-based nanofluidic networks, and apply these nanofabrication techniques to ultra-sensitive bioanalytical instrumentation for single-molecule protein separations. Complex biological samples such as tissues, tumors, serum, or cells can contain thousands of proteins ranging from highly abundant proteins which perform common housekeeping tasks, to extremely low abundance proteins which may be present in quantities as small as a single molecule per cell. This NIRT project addresses the need for high-resolution, high-sensitivity separation techniques which can sort ultra-low molarities, down to the individual protein or peptide level, for identification. successful completion of the project will result in new ultra-high-sensitivity screening strategies for applications ranging from fundamental biological studies to disease research and drug discovery. The proposed technology platform, coupling nanochannel-based single molecule detection with integrated sample manipulation, opens the potential for extraordinary reductions in sample consumption for broad-scale protein analysis where the quantity of protein is extremely limited, impacting industry-critical areas such as genomics, proteomics, and drug discovery.