Artificial nose using electrophysiology coupled to nanowires: Towards single molecule sensitivity with single atom resolution on chemical species

该项目的目标是开发一种工程电子鼻，可以“闻到”化学物质并确定它们是什么样的化学物质。每只鼻子只能闻到一种化学物质。这些化学物质可以是任何自然鼻子可以检测到的东西，例如，炸药、药物、病毒、有毒化学物质等。生物鼻子的受体将附着在微小的电子传感器上。该技术为开发一般的高精度化学检测奠定了基础，其可用于需要高精度过程控制的各种应用（即，先进制造业）。 由于传感器是电子的，它可以集成到一个大规模并行电子鼻系统中，该系统具有基于数百个不同传感器的信号识别。 将实施一项教育推广计划，与K-12分享这项技术。该推广计划旨在接触到来自当地社区的K-12教育弱势学生，这些学生主要是少数民族学生。该项目的最终目标是一种工程化的电子鼻，其对分析物具有特异性，这些分析物的差异仅为一个碳原子，并且具有能够以电子方式记录单个分析物分子的生命系统的灵敏度。分析物可以是天然鼻子可以检测到的任何东西，例如，TNT，可卡因，芳香族化合物，挥发性有机化合物（VOC）等提出的策略是基因工程融合的嗅觉气味受体（OR，膜结合蛋白与精致的选择性）的离子通道蛋白，打开响应于结合的配体的OR。支持融合的传感蛋白的脂质双层将紧密地附着到纳米线或纳米管网络（通过共价系链或非共价物理吸附过程），其将电检测离子通道的打开，并因此检测单个配体与单个OR蛋白结构域的结合。 综上所述，该项目的目标将通过这三项技术进步的结合来实现（融合OR +离子通道蛋白，单离子通道活性的纳米线传感，和脂质双层到纳米管系留化学）该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识产权进行评估来支持。优点和更广泛的影响审查标准。

The goal of this project is to develop an engineered electronic nose that can “smell” chemicals and determine what kind of chemicals they are. Each nose will smell only one kind of chemical. The chemicals could be anything that natural noses can detect, e.g., dynamite, drugs, viruses, toxic chemicals, etc. Receptors from biological noses will be attached to tiny electrical sensors. This technique lays the groundwork for developing high precision chemical detection in general, which can be utilized in a variety of applications requiring high precision process control (i.e., advanced manufacturing.) Since the sensor is electronic, it could be integrated into a massively parallel electronic nose system with signal recognition based on hundreds of different sensors onto one chip. An educational outreach program to share the technology with K-12 will be implemented. This outreach program is designed to reach K-12 educationally disadvantaged students from local neighborhoods with predominantly ethnic-minority student populations. The end goal of this project is an engineered electronic nose with specificity towards analytes that differ by as little as one carbon atom and with the sensitivity of a living system able to electrically register a single molecule of analyte. The analyte could be anything that natural noses can detect, e.g., TNT, cocaine, aromatics, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) etc. The strategy proposed is to genetically engineer a fused olfactory odorant receptor (OR, a membrane bound protein with exquisite selectivity) to an ion channel protein, which opens in response to binding of the ligand to the OR. The lipid bilayer supporting the fused sensing protein would be intimately attached to a nanowire or nanotube network (either via a covalent tether or a non-covalent physisorption process), which would electrically detect the opening of the ion channel, and hence the binding of a single ligand to a single OR protein domain. In summary, the project’s goal will be achieved by the combination of these three technological advances (fused OR + ion channel protein, nanowire sensing of single ion channel activity, and lipid bilayer to nanotube tethering chemistry) with the results of millions of years of evolution of OR proteins.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.