CAREER: Bioinspired optical sniffer based on microtoroid resonators and science and technology convergence

这个教师早期职业发展（Career）项目的目标是创造一个像猎犬一样敏感、像昆虫一样有选择性的光学“鼻子”。动物的鼻子可以区分成千上万种不同的化学物质。嗅觉在化学交流、感知危险和导航中起着至关重要的作用。因此，基于嗅觉系统的仿生传感器将有巨大的好处。该项目将结合光学传感技术，该技术可以检测光与分子相互作用的变化与工程嗅觉受体。模式识别将使用人工智能来完成。预计这些进展将能够探测到与各种疾病、对环境重要的化学品和威胁有关的极低浓度的生物和化学目标。与此同时，将开发一种DIY折光计套件，向中学生和高中生介绍光学工程概念。将开发涉及光学、食品和水质测试的课程，以建立一个持续的STEM管道，并使科学民主化，以创造一个更美好的世界。基于嗅觉系统的仿生传感器可以以更高的灵敏度自动完成目前只能由人类和动物完成的任务。现有的仿生电子鼻由于稳定性差、响应速度慢、选择性伪影等原因，尚未得到广泛应用。在提出的工作中，通过将计算设计的嗅觉受体（优于现有的电子鼻聚合物涂层）结合到低语廊模式（WGM）微环形光学谐振器上，创造出具有更高灵敏度和选择性的光学鼻子，将推动生化传感领域的发展。由于与电子传感器相比，WGM谐振器具有较高的灵敏度，因此以前已广泛用于生物和化学传感，但由于这些受体的设计、生产、结合和维持功能方面的挑战，WGM谐振器从未与天然嗅觉受体一起用于VOC检测。在这里，WGM生物化学传感领域将通过计算分子设计、合成生物学、专门的表面化学方法和多路复用光子技术的融合而得到发展。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 goal of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) project is to create an optical “nose” as sensitive as a bloodhound’s and as selective as an insect’s. Animals' noses can distinguish among many thousands of different chemicals. Smell plays a critical role in chemical communication, sensing danger, and navigation. Thus, a biomimetic sensor based on an olfactory system would have tremendous benefits. This project will combine optical sensing technology that can detect changes in how light interacts with molecules with engineered olfactory receptors. Pattern recognition will be accomplished using artificial intelligence. It is anticipated that these advances will enable the detection of extremely low concentrations of biological and chemical targets relevant to a diverse range of diseases, environmentally important chemicals, and threats. In parallel, a do-it-yourself (DIY) refractometer kit will be developed to introduce middle and high-school students to optical engineering concepts. Lessons involving optics and food and water quality testing with refractometers will be developed to build a sustained STEM pipeline and to democratize science for a better world.A biomimetic sensor based on an olfactory system could automate, with greater sensitivity, tasks that can currently only be performed by humans and animals. Existing bioinspired electronic (e-) noses have not been widely adopted due to poor stability, slow response speed, and selectivity artifacts. In the proposed work, the biochemical sensing field will be advanced by creating an optical nose with improved sensitivity and selectivity by incorporating computationally designed olfactory receptors, which are superior to existing e-nose polymer coatings, onto whispering gallery mode (WGM) microtoroid optical resonators. WGM resonators have previously been widely used for biological and chemical sensing because of their high sensitivity compared to electronic sensors, but WGM resonators have never been used in concert with natural olfactory receptors for VOC detection due to the challenge of designing, producing, binding, and maintaining the functionality of these receptors. Here the field of WGM biochemical sensing will be advanced through a convergence of computational molecular design, synthetic biology, specialized surface chemistry approaches and photonic advances for multiplexing.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.