IDBR TYPE A: Definitive Chemical Analysis of Microbial Volatile Mixtures and Chemical Intermediates via Microwave Spectroscopy

IDBR A 型：通过微波光谱法对微生物挥发性混合物和化学中间体进行确定性化学分析

• 批准号: 1832846
• 负责人: David Patterson
• 金额: $ 59.21万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-07-01 至 2022-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1832846&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IDBR; TYPE; Definitive; Chemical; Analysis

An award is made by the Instrument Development for Biological Research (IDBR) program in the Division of Biological Infrastructure and the Chemical Measurement and Imaging (CMI) program in the division of Chemistry to Harvard University to develop new instrumentation which can measure the complex mixtures of volatile molecules found in diverse chemical and biochemical environments. The instrument will be able to completely analyze complex mixtures of molecules in microbiomes and in rapidly changing chemical environments. The microbes that live on and within vertebrates play a critical role in metabolism, but the molecular mechanisms underlying their influence are not well understood. This instrument will allow simultaneous monitoring of many molecules produced by these microbes. The same instrumentation will also be adapted to detect important, short-lived chemical species. These highly reactive species play central roles in many chemical reactions - for example, in flames and in the atmosphere - but many have never been directly observed. Developing this instrumentation will also provide an ideal arena for an interdisciplinary collaboration in which undergraduate and graduate students in physics, chemistry, and chemical biology will learn about the challenges and capabilities of each other's areas of science. Overall, advancing this technology will add a powerful technique to the suite of chemical analysis tools currently available to the microbiology and chemistry communities.Detecting, identifying, and quantifying the complex mixtures of volatile, reactive molecules found in microbiomes and many other chemical environments is a challenging and important problem. A host of sensitive mixture analysis techniques exist today, but no technique can definitively analyze gas phase mixtures with hundreds of components, and many methods require laborious adjustment for each new species to be analyzed. The analysis of short lived, reactive species is a particularly difficult problem, as most separation techniques operate too slowly to observe such molecules. Fourier Transform Microwave Spectroscopy (FTMW) is exceptionally well suited to this challenging analysis problem. FTMW works by exciting and then detecting narrow, highly specific rotational (microwave) resonances in gas phase molecules. Fingerprints of distinct species can be separated electronically, and physical separation or purification of samples is not required, even for mixtures with hundreds of components. The new instrumentation leverages recent advances in microwave spectroscopy techniques, cryogenics, and fast electronics to dramatically increase the sensitivity of FTMW. The cryogenic techniques used here further provide one of the most inert chemical environments ever achieved, allowing for the stabilization and detection of highly reactive compounds. These reactive compounds play critical roles in many chemical environments, despite lasting for a small fraction of a second under typical conditions. The instrumentation will be adapted to study both complex mixtures produced in microbiomes and reactive mixtures produced in rapidly changing chemical environments. This instrumentation will allow scientists to unravel chemical environments of previously unmanageable complexity, providing an important new tool for studying a wide range of important chemical and biochemical systems. This award is being made jointly by two Programs- (1) Instrument Development for Biological Research, in the Division of Biological Infrastructure (Biological Sciences Directorate), and (2) Chemical Measurement and Imaging, in the Division of Chemistry

生物学研究仪器开发（IDBR）计划在生物基础设施部和化学测量与成像计划（CMI）计划（CMI）计划中颁发了一项奖项在多种化学和生化环境中发现的挥发性分子。该仪器将能够完全分析微生物组中分子的复杂混合物以及在迅速变化的化学环境中。生活在脊椎动物上和内部的微生物在代谢中起着关键作用，但是尚不清楚其影响力的分子机制。该仪器将允许同时监测这些微生物产生的许多分子。同一仪器也将适应以检测重要的短寿命化学物种。 这些高度反应性的物种在许多化学反应中起着核心作用，例如，在火焰和大气中 - 但从未直接观察到许多反应。开发这种仪器还将为跨学科合作提供理想的舞台，在该合作中，本科生和研究生的物理，化学和化学生物学将了解彼此科学领域的挑战和能力。 总体而言，进步这项技术将为当前可用于微生物学和化学群落可用的化学分析工具提供强大的技术。检测，识别和量化在微生物组和许多其他化学环境中发现的挥发性，反应性分子的复杂混合物的复杂混合物是一种具有挑战性和重要问题。当今存在许多灵敏的混合分析技术，但是没有任何技术可以用数百个组件来确定分析气相混合物，并且许多方法需要对每个新物种进行分析的费力调整。对短期生物，反应性物种的分析是一个特别困难的问题，因为大多数分离技术的运行速度太慢而无法观察到这种分子。傅立叶变换微波光谱（FTMW）非常适合这个具有挑战性的分析问题。 FTMW通过令人兴奋，然后检测气相分子中的狭窄，高度特异性的旋转（微波）共振来工作。不同物种的指纹可以通过电子方式分离，即使对于具有数百个成分的混合物，也不需要样品的物理分离或纯化。新的仪器利用微波光谱技术，低温和快速电子产品的最新进展极大地提高了FTMW的敏感性。 这里使用的低温技术进一步提供了有史以来最惰性的化学环境之一，从而稳定和检测高反应性化合物。尽管在典型条件下持续了一小部分，但这些反应性化合物在许多化学环境中起着关键作用。该仪器将适应于在微生物组中产生的复杂混合物和在快速变化的化学环境中产生的反应性混合物。该仪器将使科学家能够揭开以前难以管理的复杂性的化学环境，从而为研究广泛的重要化学和生化系统提供了重要的新工具。该奖项由两个计划共同由生物学研究工具开发，在生物学基础设施部（生物科学局），以及（2）化学测量和成像，在化学划分中