Micro-Channel-Plates fabricated by 3D-Nanoprinting for protein mass spectrometry

所谓的微通道板（MCP）是20世纪真正的技术奇迹之一。这种光子和粒子探测器是由俄罗斯物理学家赫列布尼科夫和梅拉米德于1957年发明的（赫列布尼科夫和梅拉米德，1957年），放大倍数从106到107。由于这种巨大的增益，mcp从一开始就广泛应用于各种检测器应用中。这包括在天文学和电子显微镜中特别重要的低电平信号检测，夜视镜和飞行时间质谱的场发射，以及任何其他需要高空间和时间分辨率成像的令人难以置信的增益的应用。虽然在过去的60年里已经有无数不同的配置被描述和专利，但基本的MCP功能保持不变。随着3d纳米打印（3DN）的出现，这种情况将会改变，我们打算利用它来制造具有前所未有的成像和增强放大的新型MCP布局。3d纳米打印MCPs（简称3DN-MCPs）的美妙之处在于其适应性，即我们将能够重新设计完整的结构，从而彻底改变这项技术。这样的3DN-MCP将影响大量的科学领域，从辐射和粒子（即电子，中子和蛋白质）检测到蛋白质的质谱。特别是在检测与病毒和病毒片段检测相关的高质量蛋白质时，这种新型3DN-MCP非常有用。因此，我们认为这种3DN-MCPs的开发是一种新型的质谱分析设备。如果我们的工作结果像我们相信的那样成功，我们还预见到对病毒突变的高通量追踪的潜在工业影响。

One of the true technical marvels of the 20th century is the so-called micro-channel plate (MCP). This photon and particle detector, invented in 1957 by Russian physicists Khlebnikov and Melamid (Khlebnikov & Melamid, 1957), offers an amplification factor of 106 up to 107. Because of this tremendous gain MCPs have been used from early on in a wide range of detector applications. This includes low-level signal detection in particular important in astronomy and in electron microscopy, field emission for night vision goggles and for time-of-flight mass spectrometry, and any other application requiring incredible gain with high spatial and temporal resolution for imaging. While there have been a myriad of different configurations being described and patented over the last 60 years, the basic MCP features remained the same. That is going to change now with the advent of 3D-nanoprinting (3DN), which we intend to employ for fabricating novel MCP layouts with unprecedented imaging and enhanced amplification. The beauty of 3D-nanoprinted MCPs (in short 3DN-MCPs) is the adaptive quality, i.e. we will be able to redesign the complete structure and thus revolutionize the technique. Such a 3DN-MCP will impact a large number of scientific fields ranging from radiation and particle (i.e. electrons, neutrons, and proteins) detection over to mass spectrometry of proteins. In particular for detecting high-mass proteins relevant for virus and virus fragment detection such a novel 3DN-MCP is extremely useful. Hence, we deem the development of such a 3DN-MCPs as a novel device for mass spectrometry. If the outcome of our work is as successful as we believe it will be, we also foresee a potential industrial impact for high-throughput tracing of virus mutations.