GOALI: Carbon dots and squarylium dyes for sensing, screening, and separations

在国家科学基金会化学部化学测量和成像计划的资助下，维克森林大学的克里斯塔·科尔教授正在开发加强药物筛选的新策略。该项目利用GOALI学术联络机会(GOALI)计划，支持与ameritox，Ltd.的Greg McIntil博士建立学术-产业合作关系。这项研究项目还包括一个国际部分，其中包括学生与日本合作者进行旅行的机会。因此，这项工作也得到了国际科学和工程办公室的支持。这项工作是对“浴盐”等特制药物的出现以及最近州一级的立法变化的回应。基础研究转化为分析工具，能够解决法医检测、执法和药物监测行业面临的这些市场驱动和社会相关的问题。在此背景下，在纳米材料开发、荧光传感和高分辨率分子分离领域的进展正在进行中。该研究项目包括：(I)产业界之间的真正伙伴关系(ameritox，Ltd.)通过近距离接触和先前成功的机构互动，(Ii)使学生接触到行业实践和标准，作为对其本科和博士化学培训的补充；(Iii)加强国际合作(与日本大阪府和崎玉大学合作)，提供配基开发和荧光染料合成方面的专门知识。这些活动加速了拟议的研究，同时为提高相关学生的全球能力和文化能力提供了机会。这项研究的更广泛影响包括全球科学合作的国际研究和文化敏感性，翻转分析化学课堂的案例研究开发，以及通过加法制造为公立学校提供低成本分析工具以加强教育的仪器设计和制造领域的实验室课程开发。为了通过学术和产业伙伴关系提供增强的药物筛选，该研究项目利用瞬变等速渗透的聚焦效应，在自由溶液、毛细管电分离中提供增强的灵敏度和分辨率。进展包括采用新颖的功能化方块染料设计的柱上标记，以及基于多重判别分析的改进的分析物识别。这些成分有助于根据药物监测行业确认测试的要求，选择性地测定复杂样品矩阵中的药物和药物代谢物(如合成卡西酮和葡萄糖醛酸苷代谢物)。此外，快速发现DNA适配子形式的功能配体的能力，能够筛选药物靶点，是普遍使用的酶免疫分析筛选程序的替代方案。这项研究使用碳点来荧光标记和修饰未结合的DNA文库成员的迁移率，从而能够快速发现特定靶标的DNA适配子。

With funding from the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program of the National Science Foundation's Chemistry Division, Professor Christa Colyer of Wake Forest University is developing new strategies for enhanced drug screening. This project uses the Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) program to support an academic - industry partnership with Dr. Greg McIntire of Ameritox, Ltd.. This research project also includes an international component, that involves student travel opportunities to engage with Japanese collaborators. Thus, this work is also supported by the Office of International Science and Engineering. The work responds to the emergence of designer drugs such as "bath salts" as well as to recent legislative changes at the state level. Basic research is translated into analytical tools capable of addressing these market-driven and socially-relevant issues facing the forensic testing, law enforcement, and medication monitoring industries. Within this context, advances in the areas of nanomaterials development, fluorescence sensing, and high-resolution molecular separations, are being pursued. The research project includes: (i) a genuine partnership between industry (Ameritox, Ltd.) and academia (Wake Forest University), enabled by close proximity and successful prior institutional interactions; (ii) exposure of students to industry practices and standards as a path to career readiness to complement their undergraduate and Ph.D. chemistry training; and (iii) enhanced international collaborations (with Osaka Prefecture and Saitama Universities in Japan), offering expertise in ligand development and fluorescent dye synthesis. These activities accelerate the proposed research while providing opportunities for the development of increased global and cultural competencies of the involved students. The broader impacts of this research include an international study and cultural sensitivity for global scientific collaboration, case study development for a flipped analytical chemistry classroom, and laboratory curriculum development in the area of instrument design and fabrication by additive manufacturing for the provision of low-cost analytical tools to public schools for enhanced education.To provide enhanced drug screening through an academic - industrial partnership, this research project employs the focusing effects characteristic of transient isotachophoresis to provide enhanced sensitivity and resolution in free solution, capillary-based electroseparations. Advances include on-column labeling with novel, functionalized squarylium dye design, and improved analyte discrimination based on multiple discriminant analysis. These components facilitate selective determination of drug and drug metabolites (such as synthetic cathinones and glucuronide metabolites) in complex sample matrices, as required by confirmation testing in the medication monitoring industry. Furthermore, the ability to rapidly discover functional ligands in the form of DNA aptamers, capable of screening for drug targets, represents an alternative to the ubiquitous use of enzyme immunoassay screening procedures. This research employs carbon dots to both fluorescently tag and modify the mobility of unbound DNA library members, thus enabling expedited DNA aptamer discovery for specific targets.