SGER: Microfluidics-based Immunosensors for Steroid Hormone Detection

本研究的长期目标是开发一种基于微流控技术的类固醇激素检测免疫传感器。类固醇激素是由“类固醇”腺体——肾上腺皮质、睾丸和卵巢分泌的化学物质。皮质醇将是这项工作的重点，但基于微流体的免疫传感器将适用于广泛的类固醇激素，特别是雌激素。研究表明，皮质醇水平在压力下会升高。皮质醇水平可以在唾液中测量；结果通常在样品采集一周后可获得。然而，微流体技术具有立竿见影的潜力。智力优势：该研究将融合微流体技术，一种对少量流体进行复杂操作的技术，以及基于荧光的免疫传感器。目前，只有有限的工作是使用“真实的”唾液样本进行的。这部分是因为许多抗原预计不会在真实样本中发现，但也因为传感器可以表现出可变性。这项工作的探索性是在没有对照样本的情况下测量唾液样本中的类固醇激素；商业例子，如葡萄糖传感器。该项目旨在解决传感器可变性的问题，并结合一种新的检测方案，以促进传感器的发展，这种传感器简单，便携，能够进行多分析物分析。更广泛的影响：这项工作将扩大科学界对类固醇激素的理解，以及如何在生理和环境样本中检测类固醇激素，从而促进实用压力测量设备的发展，从而造福社会。这项探索性研究项目的小额赠款将直接影响塔斯基吉大学与化学工程教育趋势保持同步的努力。

0548788FloydThe long term objective of this research is to develop a microfluidics-based immunosensor for steroid hormone detection. Steroid hormones are chemicals secreted by the "steroid" glands - the adrenal cortex, the testes and the ovaries. Cortisol will be the focus of this work, but the microfluidics-based immunosensor will be applicable to the broad class of steroid hormones and, in particular, estrogen. It has been shown that cortisol levels elevate in response to stress. Cortisol level can be measured in saliva; results typically are available about one week after a sample is collected. Microfluidics, however, holds the potential for immediate results.Intellectual Merit: The investigation will fuse microfluidics, a technology for performing complex manipulations on small amounts of fluids, with fluorescence-based immunosensors. Currently only limited work is conducted using "real" salivary samples. This is partly because many of the antigens are not expected to be found in real samples, but also due to the fact that the sensors can exhibit variability. The exploratory nature of this work is to measure steroid hormones in salivary samples without control samples; commercial examples such as the glucose sensor. This project is to address the issue of sensor variability and incorporate a new detection scheme to facilitate the development of a sensor that is simple, portable and capable of multi-analyte analysis.Broader Impacts: This work will benefit society by expanding the scientific community's understanding about steroid hormones and how to detect them in physiological and environmental samples, thereby leading to the development of practical stress measurement devices. This Small Grant for Exploratory Research project will directly impact Tuskegee's effort to stay current with trends in chemical engineering education.