MRI: Acquisition of gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer

来自主要研究仪器项目的资金将支持在卫斯理大学购买高分辨率气相色谱仪/质谱仪(GC/MS)。GC/MS将用于研究古代环境中的有机残留物，并模拟环境变化和在这些残留物中发现的有机化合物的降解。GC/MS用于分离、鉴定和定量复杂有机混合物中的单个化合物，而高质量的仪器对于鉴定古代样品中残留的痕量是必要的。这些化合物可以用来识别用于制造古代香水、药物、香料酒或其他有机商品的来源植物或有机成分的混合物。GC/MS还将用于生成现代植物的全面概况(化学“指纹”)，并识别有机物降解时产生的中间化合物。调查人员产生的化学参考数据将被贡献给可公开访问的数据库，如国家标准与技术研究所，并可能用于与有机产品安全有关的制造和化妆品/制药行业，以及法医和环境科学家。获得的数据还将用于填充考古界的第一个开放获取的古代有机成果数据库。该项目将发展和完善有机残留物分析作为研究古代经济和环境的方法学的潜力。它将通过在一系列小气候中收集和化学分析同一植物物种的标本来调查生态变异。通过研究古代作者认为具有不同特性的植物之间的差异，该项目将调查当地生态的影响，例如通过确定气候变化可能如何导致植物表达不同数量的药用活性成分。这些发现可能会对现代生物制药的发展产生影响。该项目还将模拟某些有机材料如何随着时间的推移而降解。最后，GC/MS将是卫斯理高级综合实验室课程的核心，在该课程中，学生为教师实验室开展合同研究项目，同时开发在行业和领先的研究实验室工作所需的技能。将GC/MS整合到卫斯理人文和社会科学课程计划的课程中，将为STEM吸引新的支持者，促进跨学科研究，并为学生提供直接适用于未来职业生涯的基于技能的科学培训。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。

Funds from the Major Research Instrumentation program will support the acquisition of a high resolution Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer (GC/MS) at Wesleyan University. The GC/MS will be used to study organic residues from ancient contexts, and to model environmental variation and degradation of the organic compounds found in such residues. GC/MS is used to separate, identify, and quantify the individual compounds within a complex organic mixture, and high quality instrumentation is necessary to identify the trace quantities remaining in ancient samples. These compounds can be used to identify the source plant or blend of organic ingredients used to make an ancient perfume, medicine, spiced wine, or other organic commodity. The GC/MS will also be used to generate comprehensive profiles ( chemical “fingerprints”) of modern plants, and identify intermediate compounds produced when organics degrade. The chemical reference data produced by the investigators will be contributed to publicly accessible data libraries such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and may be of use to manufacturing and cosmetic/pharmaceutical industries concerned with organic product safety, as well as forensic and environmental scientists. The data obtained will also be used to populate the first open-access database of ancient organic results for the archaeological community. The project will develop and refine the potential of organic residue analysis as a methodology to study ancient economy and environment. It will investigate ecological variation by collecting and chemically profiling specimens of the same plant species across a range of microclimates. By studying variation among plants which ancient authors identified as having variable properties, the project will investigate the impact of local ecologies, for example by determining how climate variation might cause plants to express different quantities of medicinally-active ingredients. These findings may have implications for modern biopharmaceutical development. The project will also model how certain organic materials degrade over time. Finally, the GC/MS will be core to Wesleyan’s Advanced Integrated Laboratory course, where students carry out contract research projects for faculty labs while developing skill sets specifically required for work in industry and leading research labs. The integration of the GC/MS into courses planned across Wesleyan’s humanities and social science curriculum will draw new constituencies into STEM, facilitate cross-disciplinary research, and provide students with skills-based scientific training that will be directly applicable to future careers.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.