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

哈佛大学生物基础设施部门的生物研究仪器开发 (IDBR) 项目和化学部门的化学测量与成像 (CMI) 项目向哈佛大学颁发了一项奖项，用于开发能够测量复杂混合物的新仪器。在不同的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和快速变化的化学环境中的复杂分子混合物。生活在脊椎动物体表和体内的微生物在新陈代谢中发挥着关键作用，但其影响背后的分子机制尚不清楚。该仪器将允许同时监测这些微生物产生的许多分子。相同的仪器也将适用于检测重要的、短命的化学物质。 这些高活性物质在许多化学反应中发挥着核心作用——例如，在火焰和大气中——但许多化学反应从未被直接观察到。开发这种仪器还将为跨学科合作提供一个理想的舞台，物理、化学和化学生物学领域的本科生和研究生将了解彼此科学领域的挑战和能力。 总体而言，推进这项技术将为微生物学和化学界目前可用的化学分析工具套件添加一项强大的技术。检测、识别和量化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是一项艰巨的任务。具有挑战性且重要的问题。目前存在许多灵敏的混合物分析技术，但没有任何技术可以明确地分析具有数百种成分的气相混合物，并且许多方法需要对每个待分析的新物种进行费力的调整。短寿命活性物质的分析是一个特别困难的问题，因为大多数分离技术运行速度太慢而无法观察此类分子。傅里叶变换微波光谱 (FTMW) 非常适合解决这一具有挑战性的分析问题。 FTMW 的工作原理是激发并检测气相分子中狭窄的、高度特异性的旋转（微波）共振。不同物种的指纹可以通过电子方式分离，并且不需要对样品进行物理分离或纯化，即使对于具有数百种成分的混合物也是如此。新仪器利用微波光谱技术、低温学和快速电子学的最新进展，显着提高 FTMW 的灵敏度。 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，允许稳定和检测高反应性化合物。这些反应性化合物在许多化学环境中发挥着关键作用，尽管在典型条件下持续时间只有一小部分。该仪器将适用于研究微生物组中产生的复杂混合物和快速变化的化学环境中产生的反应混合物。该仪器将使科学家能够解开以前难以管理的复杂化学环境，为研究各种重要的化学和生化系统提供重要的新工具。该奖项由两个项目联合颁发 - (1) 生物基础设施部门（生物科学理事会）的生物研究仪器开发，以及 (2) 化学部门的化学测量和成像