An Echelle Spectrometer to Enable Novel Diagnostic Tests Using High-Resolution Time-Resolved Laser-Induced Plasma Emission Spectroscopy

即将获得的仪器将使我们的实验室能够开发新的医学诊断测试。它将使我们能够对生物医学标本进行灵敏的测量，并迅速识别可能导致人类疾病的有害细菌。我们将获得一个宽带Echelle光谱仪来分析激光诱导等离子体发射的光，这些等离子体是在强大的激光脉冲聚焦到目标材料上的一个非常紧密的点时产生的。令人难以置信的能量的激光脉冲撕裂的材料原子，原子，创造一个紧凑的，但非常热的火花称为“等离子体。“这样的等离子体发出的光包含有关哪些原子和分子构成目标材料的信息。这个过程很容易控制，等离子体几乎可以在任何材料上产生。这使得它成为一个非常强大和有吸引力的工具，用于快速和轻松地确定未知目标的组成。通过向含有细菌的样本发射激光并分析发出的光，我们已经证明我们可以唯一地识别该样本中的细菌。这种实时检测和识别细菌病原体的能力在人类健康的许多方面都很重要，包括临床医学和医院，执法和急救社区，食品和饮料污染监测以及饮用水/游泳水清洁和安全。所有加拿大人都将受益于实施一项快速技术，以保护他们免受有害细菌的侵害，或在他们受到感染时进行快速诊断。我们现在正试图分析生物医学标本（如脑脊液或痰液），我们还开发了一种方案，从用于检测表面（如电话或床栏）微生物存在的标准临床“拭子”中获取和测试致病菌。为了扩展这项工作，需要一种新的高分辨率和高灵敏度的光谱仪来分析细菌数量非常少时形成的等离子体所获得的光。最后，通过在温莎培训使用这类设备的高素质人员，我们正在使加拿大科学家和研究人员做好准备，以便在开发这一令人振奋的新科学技术方面发挥领导作用。这些年轻的科学家站在多个学科的十字路口，正在从多个科学领域学习有价值的技术和策略。我们还培训他们能够设计、制造和使用下一代高科技光学仪器。

The instrumentation to be acquired will enable the development of novel medical diagnostic tests in our laboratory. It will allow us to make sensitive measurements of biomedical specimens and rapidly identify harmful bacteria that can cause human disease. We will acquire a broadband Echelle spectrometer to analyze the light emitted by laser-induced plasmas that are created when a powerful pulse of laser light is focused to a very tight spot onto a target material. The incredible energy of the laser pulse rips the material apart atom by atom, creating a compact but very hot spark called a "plasma." The light emitted by such a plasma contains information about which atoms and molecules made up the target material. This process is easy to control and the plasma can be created on almost any material. This makes it a very powerful and attractive tool for rapidly and easily determining the composition of an unknown target. By firing the laser at a specimen which contains bacteria and analyzing the light given off, we have shown we can uniquely identify the bacteria in that specimen. This ability to detect and identify bacterial pathogens in real-time is important in many facets of human health, including clinical medicine and in hospitals, in the law-enforcement and first-responder communities, in food and beverage contamination monitoring, and in drinking/swimming water cleanliness and safety. All Canadians would benefit from the implementation of a rapid technology to protect them from exposure to harmful bacteria or for rapid diagnosis if they were infected. We are now attempting to analyze biomedical specimens (like cerebral spinal fluid or sputum) and we have also developed a protocol to obtain and test pathogenic bacteria from standard clinical "swabs" used to detect the presence of microbes on surfaces (like telephones or bed rails.) To extend this work, a new high-resolution and high-sensitivity spectrometer is required to analyze the light obtained from plasmas formed when the number of bacteria is very small. Lastly, by training highly-qualified personnel in the use of this type of equipment in Windsor, we are preparing Canadian scientists and researchers to play a lead role in the development of this exciting new scientific technique. These young scientists stand at the crossroads of multiple disciplines and are learning valuable techniques and strategies from several scientific fields. We are also training them to be able to design, build, and utilize the next generation of high-technology optical apparatus.