CAREER: Optical Nanosensors to Monitor Linked Metabolism in Microbial Consortia

微生物群落遍布我们周围--在土壤、你的身体和每个当地池塘中--分解和回收营养物质。世纪以来，这些群落的相互依赖性一直是众所周知的，但大部分实验室微生物学都是在一个物种上孤立地进行的。确定营养物质如何在这些不同物种之间流动，对于更好地预测微生物群落如何处理重金属污染，影响生物修复或适应新的生态环境至关重要。该项目将开发传感工具，以空间和时间定义的方式充分测量相关的新陈代谢，并开发更小的（基于毛细管的）模型系统，能够更好地模拟环境中的真实环境，同时保持适合在实验室中使用。教育推广包括与当地的开端幼儿园合作，让弱势学龄前儿童（包括少数民族，残疾人和无家可归者）及其兄弟姐妹接触STEM和传感，并与县高中系统合作，将研究实习生安置到实验室，为这个项目做好准备，为他们未来的科学研究和工程事业做好准备。这个CAREER奖的目标是开发和应用光学纳米传感器来监测毛细培养系统中整个横纹环境微生物群落的代谢标志物。这将解决的问题，以及这些毛细血管的方法是能够概括的条纹聚生体在较大规模的系统。中心假设是，毛细管为基础的社区将建立类似梯度的营养物质（氧，铁，硫酸盐，乳酸盐）更大的柱为基础的系统，并显示更快的建立。三个具体的目标建立在这个目标：1：优化持续发光“辉光”纳米传感器的硫酸盐和铁的定量。2：优化纳米传感器，用于在有氧和厌氧环境中定量乳酸。3：确定基于毛细管的微生物系统如何很好地模拟基于较大柱的方法的营养梯度。该CAREER奖项的预期成果包括新的纳米传感器技术，可测量分析物（铁，硫酸盐，乳酸盐）范围的扩大，以及研究微生物财团的小型和大型模型系统之间的关系的发展。这些成果将推进传感器领域，通过使用持续发光的背景减少纳米传感器和新的传感器时空监测这些关键分析物。这个项目将量化如何以及毛细管微生物培养方法概括了复杂的环境中建立了更大的柱为基础的系统。这一进展是有可能与这些新的工具来监测物种间的新陈代谢。基于毛细管的微生物群落和相应的纳米传感器可以监测一系列领域的运输动力学，包括重金属污染，生物修复和微生物生态学（特别是在试图了解微观异质性）。在这项研究中开发的工具和技术可以使研究任何三维生物系统的科学界受益。这项工作可以产生巨大影响的相关应用包括医学模型（例如肿瘤类器官，器官芯片系统，生物膜和3D组织支架），其他环境系统（例如微生物垫）和工业系统（例如生物素生产，废水处理）。利用纳米传感器时空监测代谢的能力将使所有这些复杂的代谢相关系统取得广泛的进展。这项工作也将被整合到第一年的工作室生物学课程，这是在一个身临其境的实验室环境，而不是在教室里教。在本单元中，学生将探索微生物群落代谢，并将纳米传感器应用于科学调查。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Microbial communities are all around us - in soil, your body, and every local pond - breaking down and recycling nutrients. The interdependence of these communities has been known for over a century, but the bulk of laboratory microbiology is done on one species in isolation. Determining how nutrients flow between these different species is essential to better predict how microbial communities can process heavy metal pollution, effect bioremediation, or adapt to new ecological settings. This project will develop the sensing tools to adequately measure interrelated metabolism in a spatially and temporally defined manner and develop smaller (capillary-based) model systems able to better mimic the real-world settings seen in the environment while remaining suitable for use in the lab. Educational outreach includes partnering with the local Head Start preschool to expose disadvantaged preschoolers (including minorities, disabled, and the homeless) and their siblings to STEM and sensing, and working with the county high school system to place research interns into the lab for this project to prepare them for a future career in scientific research and engineering. The goal of this CAREER award is to develop and apply optical nanosensors to monitor metabolic markers throughout striated environmental microbial communities in capillary culture systems. This will address the question of how well these capillary approaches are able to recapitulate the striated consortia seen in larger scale systems. The central hypothesis is that capillary based communities will establish similar gradients in nutrients (oxygen, iron, sulfate, lactate) to larger column-based systems and show faster establishment. Three specific aims build toward this goal: 1: Optimize persistent luminescence "glow" nanosensors for quantification of sulfate and iron. 2: Optimize nanosensors for quantification of lactate in aerobic and anaerobic environments. 3: Determine how well capillary based microbial systems mimic the nutrient gradients of larger column-based approaches. The expected outcomes of this CAREER award include a new nanosensor technology, an expansion of the range of analytes measurable (iron, sulfate, lactate), and the development of a relationship between small and large model systems for studying microbial consortia. These outcomes will advance the field of sensors through the use of persistent luminescence for background reduction in nanosensors and new sensors for spatiotemporal monitoring of these key analytes. This project will quantify how well capillary based microbial culture approaches recapitulate the complicated environment established in larger columnbased systems. This advance is made possible with these new tools to monitor inter-species metabolism. The capillary based microbial communities and corresponding nanosensors can monitor transport dynamics in a range of fields including heavy metal pollution, bioremediation, and microbial ecology (especially in attempts to understand microheterogeneity). The tools and techniques developed in this research can benefit scientific communities researching any three-dimensional biological system. Related applications where this work can make a large impact include medical models (e.g. tumor organoids, organ-on-a-chip systems, biofilms, and 3D tissue scaffolds), other environmental systems (e.g. microbial mats), and industrial systems (e.g. biotherapeutic production, wastewater treatment). The ability to spatiotemporally monitor metabolism with nanosensors will enable a wide range of advances in all of these complex metabolically linked systems. This work will also be integrated to a first year Studio Biology course which is taught in an immersive laboratory setting rather than in a classroom. In this module, students will explore microbial community metabolism, and apply nanosensors in scientific investigation.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.