Small-Scale, Loop-Based Chemical Separations and In-line Sampling Employing Magnetoelectrochemical Methods

该项目由化学部化学测量和成像计划资助。阿肯色大学的英格丽德·弗里奇教授正在开发一种快速、通用的方法，用于以超小体积筛选与生物相关的化学物质的粗合成混合物的成分。这种新的化学分离方法不需要高压也不需要高电压。它还最大限度地减少了费用，并提高了便携性。为了应对这些分离挑战，磁铁和电力被用来推动分离系统中的流体混合物。该系统本质上是一个无限延伸的循环，其中分析物被分离。当每个组分从其他组分拉出时，以可编程的方式将其移除，以便为其余的组分优化分离条件。这种方法增加了药物设计的机会，并对药物设计产生了经济影响，例如在多肽疗法和其他医疗、制药和环境用途的感兴趣的化学产品中。在与高中教师的外展伙伴关系中，学生为学生开发了一个自给自足的暑期科学研讨会，重点放在研究项目中的概念上，同时强调科学的个性化和人性化。在这个项目中，正在开发小规模的高效化学分离，具有“即时”编程列长的能力。环状微流控通道中的磁电化学泵送，结合超灵敏的现场分离检测，确定了专注于治疗性多肽的混合物的最佳分离效率的条件。使用互补荧光技术，包括全内反射、广域成像和荧光相关光谱。在线采样方法可实现对分离的近乎实时的监控和调整。此外，三维的数值模拟提供了对实验结果的更好的理解，并为提高效率提出了设计建议。阿肯色大学的工作人员与公立高中哈斯霍尔学院合作，发起并培育了一个自给自足的为期一周的暑期科学研讨会。在与高中教师的外联伙伴关系中，正在开发一个自给自足的暑期科学讲习班。对社会的更广泛影响包括通过以最低成本筛选少量合成混合物来促进治疗性多肽药物的设计和开发。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project is funded by the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program of the Chemistry Division. Professor Ingrid Fritsch of the University of Arkansas is developing a fast and versatile approach for screening components of crude synthetic mixtures of biologically-relevant chemicals in ultrasmall volumes. This new approach to chemical separations does not require high pressures nor high voltages. It also minimizes expense and improves portability. To meet these separation challenges, magnets and electricity are used to propel the fluid mixtures in the separation system. The system is essentially an indefinitely extended loop where analytes are separated. Each component is removed in a programmable fashion as it pulls away from the others so that separation conditions can be optimized for the rest. This approach advances opportunities for and has economic bearing on drug design, such as in peptide therapeutics, and other chemical products of interest for medical, pharmaceutical, and environmental uses. In an outreach partnership with High School teachers, a self-sustaining summer science workshop, developed by students, for students, focuses on concepts in the research project while highlighting the personalization and humanization of the science.In this project, high-efficiency chemical separations at the small scale with the ability to program column length "on-the-fly" are being developed. Magnetoelectrochemical pumping in loop-based microfluidic channels, combined with ultrasensitive in situ detection of separations, determine conditions for the best separation efficiencies of mixtures focused on therapeutic peptides. Complementary fluorescence techniques are used, including total internal reflection, wide field imaging, and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. An in-line sampling approach enables near real-time monitoring and tuning of separations. In addition, numerical simulations in three dimensions provide a better understanding of experimental results and suggest designs for improved efficiencies. Personnel at the University of Arkansas partner with a public high school, Haas Hall Academy to initiate and foster a self-sustaining week long summer science workshop. In an outreach partnership with High School teachers, a self-sustaining summer science workshop is under development. Broader impacts to society include facilitation of therapeutic peptide drug design and development through the screening of small quantities of synthetic mixtures with minimal expense.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.