Steacie Fellowship RTI - Wireless Nanotechnology Sensor for Global Surveillance

我的愿景是设计一种能够检测和跟踪病原体传播的手持无线设备。我计划整合纳米技术、分子靶点、无线技术，创造第一代手持分子“远程诊断”设备，可以诊断来自偏远地区的传染性病原体。 目前的许多手持式分子传感器对于诊断发展中国家的病原体是无用的，因为灵敏度和特异性差，成本高，它们太大而不能运输，或者操作复杂并且需要熟练的技术人员。这些设备都不能快速跟踪和监测病原体在生态系统中的传播。这可能会产生可怕的后果。在过去的十年里，加拿大人观察到了SARS流行危机、真菌入侵杀死安大略开花的山茱萸树以及阿尔伯塔牛的疯牛病爆发。如果能够简化病原体的诊断和追踪过程，就能够采取更有效的战略来遏制流行病。这可能会保护植物物种，挽救许多人的生命，并减轻暴露于或公共卫生系统的工人的经济负担。 我们将联合收割机表面纳米技术与手机技术相结合，以同时分析多种分子生物标志物。在这里，我们请求支持一个高端流式细胞仪系统，使我们能够表征我们的纳米技术（例如，量子点设计用于检测多个目标），这将是我们的分子传感器系统的重要组成部分。

My vision is to engineer a handheld wireless device capable of detecting and tracking the spread of pathogens. I plan to integrate nanotechnology, molecular targets, wireless technology to create the first generation of handheld molecular "telediagnostic" devices that can diagnose infectious pathogens from remote areas. Many of the current handheld molecular sensors are not useful for diagnosing pathogens in the developing world because of poor sensitivity and specificity, high cost, they are too large to be transported, or are operational complex and require skilled technicians. None of these devices can rapidly track and monitor the spread of pathogens within an ecosystem. This can have dire consequences. Canadians have observed the SARS epidemic crisis, invasion of fungi killing flowering dogwood trees in Ontario, and the Mad Cow disease outbreak in Alberta cattle in the past decade. The ability to streamline the diagnosis and tracking process of pathogens would enable a more effective strategy to contain epidemics. This could potentially preserve plant species, save the lives of many people, and reduce economic burden on workers that were exposed or to the public health care system. We will combine nanotechnology on surfaces with cell phone technology to analyze a multitude of molecular biomarkers simultaneously. Here we request support for a high-end flow cytometer system that would allow us to characterize our nanotechnology (e.g, quantum dots designed for detecting multiple targets) that would are an important component of our molecular sensor system.