I-Corps: Plasmonic Microarray Chips for Microbial Identification

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是加强等离子体微芯片的发展，使微生物能够分析复杂的样品。该技术在实验室研究、水质评价、食品安全、人体健康筛查等方面具有广泛的应用前景。简化的样品制备有利于时间敏感测试，并且改进的性能为使用廉价的台式质谱仪器识别微生物菌株和细菌污染物提供了技术可行性。该方法可进一步用于基于脂质冠的病毒鉴定。这项技术消除了旧的、费力的技术所经历的问题，并加速了对微生物影响的实时理解。这个I-Corps项目探索用于细菌鉴定的微阵列上的金属增强等离子体特性。金属层结构的操作提供荧光成像定位，高通量分析和增强的基质辅助激光解吸/电离(MALDI) -质谱仪（MS）性能。该技术基于微芯片上的脂质组学分析，其中样品位置通过荧光成像确定，以进行更准确的质谱分析。该微芯片可转移到其他技术平台，用于在单细胞水平上鉴定一系列成分，包括代谢物和脂质，这可能导致快速的微生物鉴定。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to enhance the development of plasmonic microchips that enable microbial analysis in complex samples. This technology can have broad application in laboratory research, water quality assessment, food safety, and human health screening. The simplified sample preparation is advantageous for time sensitive testing, and the improved performance offers a technical feasibility for identifying microbial strains and bacterial contaminants using inexpensive bench-top mass spectrometric instruments. The method can be further adopted to identify viruses based on their lipid corona. This technology eliminates issues experienced with older, laborious techniques and accelerates the understanding of microorganisms’ impact in real-time.This I-Corps project explores metal-enhanced plasmonic properties on microarrays for bacterial identification. Manipulation of metal layer structures offers fluorescence imaging localization, high throughput analysis, and enhanced Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization (MALDI) - Mass Spectrometer (MS) performance. The technique is based on lipidomic profiling on microchips, where sample location is pinpointed with fluorescent imaging for more accurate mass spectrometry analysis. The microchip is transferable to other technique platforms for identification of a range of components including metabolites and lipids at the single cell level that may lead to swift microbial identification.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.