AMUSE (Array of Micromachined UltraSonic Electrosprays) for Bioanalytical Mass Sp

描述（由申请人提供）： 我们建议开发一种新型的微机械超声电喷雾源，消除了大多数，如果不是全部，传统的ESI技术的局限性，从而提供科学家参与生物医学，功能蛋白质组学和生物标志物的发现与一个独特的MS接口的高通量，超灵敏度和多路复用的分析蛋白质混合物的生物意义。所提出的技术称为AMUSE（阵列的微机械超声电喷雾）离子源具有潜在的操作在低电压与宽范围的溶剂，能够最大限度地减少所需的样品大小和提高样品利用率，并固有地适合于并行，高通量操作与多路复用的阵列格式。此外，超声电喷雾源可以便宜地制成一次性的，因为它是使用简单工艺批量微制造的。我们将设计和制造微机械超声电喷雾源阵列的原型，用于生物相关蛋白质混合物的质谱分析。我们将测试和优化两种ESI设备概念的性能，并明确量化其潜在优势。我们将评估飞行时间质谱仪的分析性能配备了拟议的微机械超声电喷雾源，并将其与现有的商业纳米喷雾离子源进行比较。如本文所提出的，开发用于蛋白质质谱的改进的电喷雾源将能够鉴定各种人类疾病（包括各种类型的癌症）的新生物标志物。此外，质谱法通常用于药物开发，因此电喷雾质谱法的进步将直接有助于改善公共卫生。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose to develop a novel micromachined ultrasonic electrospray source which eliminates most, if not all, limitations of the conventional ESI technology, thereby providing scientists involved in biomedicine, functional proteomics and biomarker discovery with a unique MS interface for high throughput, ultrasensitive, and multiplexed analysis of proteins mixtures of biological significance. The proposed technology called AMUSE (Array of Micromachined UltraSonic Electrospray) ion source has potential for operation at low voltages with wide range of solvents, capable of minimizing the required sample size and improving sample utilization, and is inherently suitable for parallel, high throughput operation with multiplexing in the array format. Further, the ultrasonic electrospray source can be made inexpensive to be disposable since it is batch microfabricated using a simple process. We will design and fabricate the prototype(s) of the micromachined ultrasonic electrospray source array for use in mass spectrometric analysis of protein mixtures of biological relevance. We will test and optimize the performance of both ESI device concepts and to clearly quantify their potential advantages. We will evaluate the analytical performance of a time-of-flight mass spectrometer outfitted with the proposed micromachined ultrasonic electrospray source and compare it with existing commercial nanospray ion sources. Development of an improved electrospray source for protein mass spectrometry, as proposed here, would enable identification of new biomarkers of various human deceases, including various types of cancers. In addition, mass spectrometry is routinely used in drug development, and therefore the advancement of electrospray mass spectrometry will contribute directly to improvement in public health.