A microwave digestion system for advanced trace element research

Gailer博士（化学系），Wieser博士（物理系）和Vogel博士（生物科学系）的研究小组针对生物系统中的痕量金属进行研究，其中包括必需金属铜，铁和锌以及环境中丰富的有毒金属镉和汞。这个“生物系统中的金属”领域-也被称为金属组学-正在迅速获得动力，因为更好地了解这些微量金属对生物体的影响可以为金属的人类毒理学（Gailer），神经退行性疾病的早期诊断（Wieser）以及盐胁迫对农业重要植物的影响（Vogel）提供全新的见解。上述每个研究计划都迫切需要一个关键的基础设施项目，以快速消化/矿化少量（200毫克或更少）的生物组织，以准确测定金属浓度及其同位素组成。CEM公司的Accelerated Discover SP-D Plus密闭容器微波消解平台完美地满足了这些要求，因为它可以在10分钟内（包括冷却！）以高再现性消解生物组织/液体，同时避免污染。所提出的系统代表了最经济和用户友好的实用配置，其根据所有申请人在消化容器体积（10 ml Pyrex消化容器）方面的需求而定制。对研究生进行这种最先进的消化系统的培训不仅会大大加快研究，而且会显着提高其安全性。这是因为相当不安全的开放式特氟隆容器消化系统（生物组织），涉及浓硝酸，目前在盖勒博士的实验室和运输博士Wieser的样品在卡尔加里的主要道路消化可以完全避免。此外，可编程微波消解系统将使样品之间的消解条件更加一致，这对于实现可重复和准确的结果至关重要，而这些结果是进行高质量微量元素研究的先决条件。

The research groups of Dr. Gailer (Department of Chemistry), Dr. Wieser (Department of Physics) and Dr. Vogel (Department of Biological Sciences) conduct research directed at trace metals in biological systems, which includes the essential metals copper, iron and zinc as well as the environmentally abundant toxic metals cadmium and mercury. This 'metals in biological systems' field - which is also referred to as metallomics - is rapidly gaining momentum because a better understanding of the effect that these trace metals exert on/within organisms can provide fundamentally new insights into the human toxicology of metals (Gailer), the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases (Wieser) and the effect that salt stress exerts on agriculturally important plants (Vogel). Each of the aforementioned research programs has an urgent need for a critical infrastructure item to rapidly digest/mineralize small amounts (200 mg or less) of biological tissues for the accurate determination of metal concentrations and their isotopic composition. The Accelerated Discover SP-D Plus Closed Vessel Microwave Digestion platform from CEM Corporation ideally fulfills these requirements since it allows to digest biological tissues/fluids with high reproducibility while avoiding contamination in less than 10 min (including cool down!). The proposed system represents the most economical and user friendly practical configuration which is tailored to the needs of all applicants in terms of digestion vessel volume (10 ml Pyrex digestion vessels). Training of graduate students on this state-of-the-art digestion system will not only greatly expedite research, but also significantly increase their safety. This is because rather unsafe open Teflon vessel digestion systems (of biological tissues) that involve concentrated nitric acid and are currently practiced in Dr. Gailer's laboratory and the transport of Dr. Wieser's samples across a major roadway in Calgary for digestion can be altogether avoided. Furthermore, the programmable microwave digestion system will result in more consistent digestion conditions from sample to sample, which is critical to realize reproducible and accurate results that are a prerequisite to conduct high caliber trace element research.