CAREER: Biomolecular Nanophotonic Fabry-Perot Interferometry (BioNanoFPI)

职业：生物分子纳米光子法布里-珀罗涉仪(BioNanoFPI)建议设计一种生物分子纳米光子法布里-珀罗涉仪(BioNanoFPI)平台，该平台将允许对浓度在飞摩尔范围内的多个生物制剂进行可扩展的并行检测，并使用宽带白光光源而不是激光来轻松操作。具有集成纳米结构的基于聚合物的微机械FPI(µFPI)的开发将使BioNanoFPI平台成为可能，该平台允许创建二维、高度多路复用、廉价的阵列来进行大规模的化学和生物医学库的并行筛选。该职业项目的目标是通过理论建模和将液态生物聚合物连接到固态纳米光子器件和微机械器件来建立生物分子纳米光子学的重大进展。这份职业发展计划有三个主要组成部分。该项目的科学部分集中在：(I)纳米等离子体衬底信号增强机制的理论建模、理解和实验验证，以及纳米等离子体衬底与微机械法布里-珀罗涉法(µFPI)之间的相互作用；(Ii)生物聚合物介电行为的理论建模和纳米结构法布里-珀罗腔中抗体和抗原相互作用的实验阐明。该项目的技术部分集中在：(I)开发一种廉价的纳米制造工艺，以构建用于等离子体衬底的纳米管柱阵列；(Ii)精确控制用于高灵敏无标记生物检测的µFPI腔中的亚100 nm纳米结构/纳米管柱阵列，以及与微和纳米流体网络集成的可靠的纳米填充聚合物基µFPI阵列的批量制造方法。智力优势：这项拟议的研究将有助于推进纳米等离子体衬底和BioNanoFPI微/纳米系统的信号增强机制的基础知识。了解这种微/纳米系统的基本物理机制可能会引发其他重要的想法和创新，用于生物纳米技术的应用。这项研究在病原体、疾病检测、环境监测和安全等方面有着广泛的应用。此外，药物筛选和发现可以通过使用高通量、多路复用、无标记的生物传感来极大地受益。广泛的影响：PI提出了一个连贯和全面的教育、传播和推广部分，其中包括开发一门新的技术选修课？纳米生物光子学导论？将研究成果与现有的纳米和微型课程相结合，指导研究生、本科生和代表性不足的学生，并向当地社区传播和外联。将专门设计一个网页来传播纳米生物光子学导论的成果。拟议的教育和外展计划将通过NSF赞助的路易斯安那理工大学REU计划来教育本科生，并通过NSF赞助的Nero计划来完成，Nero计划旨在教育K-12年级的女性和代表性不足的学生、高中以及来自当地小农村和小城镇学校的潜在学生。教育的总体目标是通过培训学生用合理的理论进行研究，并让他们获得实践实验室技能，为他们的高级职业生涯提供帮助，从而帮助下一代劳动力发展。

CAREER: Biomolecular Nanophotonic Fabry-Perot Interferometry (BioNanoFPI)The proposes to design a Biomolecular Nanophotonic Fabry-Perot Interferometer (BioNanoFPI) platform that will allow scalable parallel detection of multiple bio-agents with concentrations in the femtomole range and ease-of-operation using a broadband white light source instead of a laser. The development of a polymer-based micromachined FPI (µFPI) with integrated nanostructures will enable a BioNanoFPI platform that allows for the creation of two-dimensional, highly-multiplexed, inexpensive arrays to conduct large-scale parallel screening of chemical and biomedical libraries.The objective of this CAREER project is to establish a significant advancement in biomolecular nanophotonics by theoretical modeling and interfacing liquid-state biopolymers to solid-state nanophotonic and micromachined devices. There are three main components of this career development plan. The scientific component of this project focuses on: (i) the theoretical modeling and understanding of and experimental confirmation of the signal enhancement mechanism of the nanopillar plasmonic substrates, and the interactions between the nanopillar-plasmonic substrates and micromachined Fabry-Perot Interferometry (µFPI); (ii) the theoretical modeling of the dielectric behavior of biopolymers and experimental elucidation of interactions of antibodies and antigens in the nanostructured Fabry-Perot cavity. The technological component of this project focuses on: (i) the development of an inexpensive nanofabrication process to construct a nanopillar array for plasmonic substrates; (ii) the precise control of sub100 nm nanostructure/nanopillar arrays in the µFPI cavity for highly sensitive label free bioassays, and a robust batch fabrication method of nanostructure-filled polymer-based µFPI arrays integrated with micro and nanofluidic networks. Intellectual merit: This proposed research will help advance fundamental knowledge of signal enhancement mechanisms of the nanopillar plasmonic substrates and the BioNanoFPI micro/nanosystem. Understanding the fundamental physical mechanism of this micro/nanosystem might trigger other important ideas and innovations for bionanotechnology applications. This research has a broad range of applications to pathogen, disease detection, environmental monitoring and security. In addition, drug screening and discovery can benefit tremendously by using high throughput multiplexed label-free biosensing.Broader impacts: The PI proposes a coherent and comprehensive education, dissemination and outreach component that includes developing a new technical elective course ?Introduction to Nano-biophotonics,? integrating research results with existing nano and micro courses, mentoring graduate, undergraduate and underrepresented students and dissemination and outreach to the local community. A webpage will be designed especially to disseminate the outcomes of ?Introduction to Nano-biophotonics.? The proposed educational and outreach program will be accomplished through the NSF-sponsored REU program at Louisiana Tech to educate undergraduate students and through the NSF-sponsored NERO program to educate women and under-represented students in K-12, high school and prospective students from local small rural and small town schools. The overall educational goal is to help next-generation workforce development by training students to carry out research with sound theory and allowing them to gain hands-on laboratory skills for their advanced careers.