An Embedded Cytometer for Autonomous Platforms

用于自主平台的嵌入式细胞仪

• 批准号: 2022843
• 负责人: Virginia Armbrust
• 金额: $ 123万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2022843&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Embedded; Cytometer; Autonomous; Platforms

The photosynthetic microbes – the phytoplankton – generate about 50% of the oxygen and organic matter produced on Earth each year and serve as the base of marine food webs. Flow cytometers are essential oceanographic instruments that rapidly and accurately measure the abundance, size and fluorescent characteristics of individual phytoplankton cells. For example, flow cytometry led to the discovery of Prochloroccocus, the most abundant photosynthetic organism on Earth. However, thirty-seven years after the first description of a flow cytometer designed specifically for the measurement of phytoplankton in the field, the complexity of flow cytometry, and the multi-parametric data it produces continues to be an obstacle to its evolution towards common use as an oceanographic field instrument. PipeCyte is a miniature, low-power flow cytometer instrument that was designed to perform autonomous measurements of 0.5-10 µm diameter phytoplankton while deployed on autonomous oceanographic measurement platforms. In this first deployment project, the PipeCyte instrument will be immersed at depths of up to 100 meters while tethered to a surface buoy. A surface buoy is a low-cost platform that is simple to deploy from a research vessel. In this project, several buoy deployed PipeCyte instruments will be released in the open ocean to perform measurements of the phytoplankton community at multiple depths. These measurements will provide an unprecedented view of the relation between environmental features and phytoplankton communities along the water column. A previously developed PipeCyte prototype will be iterated to reduce both size and power requirement through a redesign and repackaging of the custom acquisition and control circuitry. This new sub-20 watt PipeCyte V2 will be housed within a commercially available pressure housing. After instrument calibration in the lab using calibration microspheres and cultured phytoplankton, initial field testing of a float-tethered instrument will be performed in the Puget Sound. Automated data analysis methods previously developed in R for analysis of SeaFlow flow cytometer data will be ported to the PipeCyte Labview based control software so that the multi-parameter flow cytometer data can be reduced to phytoplankton population counts in realtime. This reduced data set along with GPS fix will be transmitted back to ship and shore by satellite modem. The proposed buoy-deployed instrument will be powered by four 100 W-hr lithium batteries to yield instrument on-time of approximately 50 hours per deployment. Final field testing to demonstrate proof-of-concept will occur in the sub-tropic Pacific Ocean where real-time counts of Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus and small eukaryotic phytoplankton will be broadcast to the ship.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

光合微生物（浮游植物）每年产生地球上约 50% 的氧气和有机物，是海洋食物网的基础。流式细胞仪是重要的海洋学仪器，可以快速、准确地测量丰度、大小和荧光特性。例如，流式细胞术导致了地球上最丰富的光合生物原绿球藻的发现。然而，距离首次描述三十七年后。 PipeCyte 是一款专门为现场测量浮游植物而设计的流式细胞仪，但流式细胞仪的复杂性及其产生的多参数数据仍然是其向通用化发展的障碍，因为 PipeCyte 是一种微型、通用的海洋学现场仪器。低功耗流式细胞仪仪器，旨在对直径为 0.5-10 µm 的浮游植物进行自主测量，同时部署在自主海洋学测量平台上。系在水面浮标上，可浸入最深 100 米的深度。 水面浮标是一种易于从研究船上部署的低成本平台。在该项目中，将在露天释放多个浮标部署的 PipeCyte 仪器。海洋对多个深度的浮游植物群落进行测量，这些测量将为先前开发的水柱周围的环境特征和浮游植物群落之间的关系提供前所未有的视角。 PipeCyte 原型将通过重新设计和重新封装定制采集和控制电路来迭代，以减少尺寸和功率需求。这种新的低于 20 瓦的 PipeCyte V2 将在实验室中使用仪器校准后安装在商用压力外壳内。校准微球和培养的浮游植物，浮标系留仪器的初始现场测试将在先前在 R 中开发的用于 SeaFlow 分析的自动数据分析方法中进行。流式细胞仪数据将被移植到基于 PipeCyte Labview 的控制软件，以便多参数流式细胞仪数据可以实时减少为浮游植物种群计数，该减少的数据集连同 GPS 定位将通过卫星传输回船舶和岸上。拟议的浮标部署仪器将由四个 100 W-hr 锂电池供电，以使每次部署的仪器运行时间约为 50 小时以进行最终现场测试。概念验证将在亚热带太平洋进行，原绿球藻、聚球藻和小型真核浮游植物的实时计数将被广播到船上。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过评估被认为值得支持基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。