LEAPS-MPS: Water-soluble Afterglow Luminescent Nanocomposites for Bioimaging and Bioanalysis

在这个项目中，由数学和物理科学局(MPS)和既定的刺激竞争研究计划(EPSCoR)共同资助，并由NSF化学系管理，南达科他大学的Steven Wu和他的学生将进行研究，旨在利用碳点(Cd)和半导体聚合物纳米颗粒(SPN)开发一系列用于生物成像和生物分析的水溶性余辉发光纳米复合材料。由于生物样品具有较强的自发荧光和有限的光穿透深度，在光学生物成像和生物分析过程中如何消除背景噪声以获得高灵敏度和准确度仍然是一个挑战。吴博士和他的学生将研究CDS@SPN纳米复合材料的合成、表征和余辉发光机制，并将致力于展示其在生物成像和生物分析方面的潜力。他们的研究有望为减少生物成像和生物分析的背景噪声的余辉发光探头的设计提供洞察力，从而提高检测的灵敏度和准确性。此外，吴博士和他的团队将联系南达科他州的部落学院和大学，为未被充分代表的本科生提供参与研究项目的机会，并鼓励他们将科学作为职业选择。根据这一奖项，南达科他州大学的吴研究团队建议解决使用余辉发光纳米材料进行光学生物成像和生物分析过程中强背景噪声的挑战。他们将对他们正在开发的用于生物成像应用的余辉纳米材料进行化学合成、表征和机理研究。该项目的技术目标有四个方面：(I)通过调整掺杂元素和碳化程度来合成一系列余辉碳点：(Ii)合成余辉碳点掺杂半导体聚合物纳米粒子(Cd@SPN)，这可以构成一种基于Cd和SPN之间的F-ӧ共振能量转移(FRET)制备水溶性余辉发光探针的一般方法；(Iii)研究余辉发光的机制和(Iv)在生物成像和生物分析中应用余辉发光纳米探测器，以实现高灵敏度和准确性。这一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。

In this project, co-funded by the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and managed by the Chemistry Division at NSF, Steven Wu and his students at the University of South Dakota will perform studies that aim to develop a range of water-soluble afterglow luminescent nanocomposites for bioimaging and bioanalysis, using carbon dots (CDs) and semiconducting polymer nanoparticles (SPNs). Due to the strong autofluorescence from biosamples and limited light penetration depth, it is still a challenge to eliminate background noise during optical bioimaging and bioanalysis to achieve high sensitivity and accuracy. Dr. Wu and his students will investigate the synthesis, characterization, and afterglow luminescent mechanisms of the CDs@SPN nanocomposites and will work to demonstrate their potential in bioimaging and bioanalysis. Their studies are expected to provide insight into the design of afterglow luminescent probes with reduced background noise for bioimaging and bioanalysis, thereby improving detection sensitivity and accuracy. In addition, Dr. Wu and his team will reach out to Tribal Colleges and Universities in South Dakota and provide opportunities for underrepresented undergraduate students to participate in research projects and encourage them to consider science as a career option. Under this award, the Wu research team at the University of South Dakota proposes to address the challenges of strong background noise during optical bioimaging and bioanalysis using afterglow luminescent nanomaterials. They will perform chemical synthesis, characterization and mechanistic investigations of the afterglow nanomaterials that they are developing for bioimaging applications. The technical objectives of this project are four-fold: (i) synthesis of of a spectrum of afterglow carbon dots by adjusting the doping elements and carbonization level; (ii) synthesis of afterglow carbon dot-doped semiconducting polymer nanoparticles (CD@SPNs), which could constitute a general approach to fabricating water-soluble afterglow luminescent probes based on Fӧrster resonance energy transfer (FRET) between CDs and SPNs; (iii) investigating the mechanism of afterglow luminescence and (iv) implementation of afterglow luminescent nanoprobes in bioimaging and bioanalysis to achieve high sensitivity and accuracy.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.