URoL:ASC: The design, development, and societal impact of rapid, in-home, water quality biosensors

URoL:ASC：快速家用水质生物传感器的设计、开发和社会影响

• 批准号: 2319427
• 负责人: Julius Lucks
• 金额: $ 300万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-01 至 2028-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2319427&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: URoL; ASC; design; development; societal

The global water crisis is among the most urgent issues of our time. Billions of people globally face problems with water security caused by water contamination, leading to far-reaching adverse economic, political, nutritional, and mental and physical consequences. However, limited accessibility to water testing methods is a critical barrier to understanding water safety. Therefore, this proposal seeks to address the need for action on water quality and water insecurity by developing a three-stage methodology for the design, development, and distribution of rapid in-home, water quality monitoring tests. The water test platform is based on knowledge gained from the study of how natural microorganisms detect water contaminants in the environment, allowing molecular engineering principles to be used to repurpose these sensing mechanisms in safe formats that can be operated by non-experts. Using a novel combination of biological, chemical, engineering and social science techniques, this study will investigate how the ability to test water quality at home changes the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of individuals related to water access and use. The vision is that this synthetic biology biotechnology platform will help mitigate the economic, political, and health impacts of the global water crisis by providing actionable information to individuals and communities that positively impacts their daily lives and informs mitigation strategies. This new approach to water quality monitoring will be established in collaboration with the greater Chicagoland community for the detection of lead (Pb), copper (Cu), and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), three water contaminants that are the subject of major public regulation and concern. In Stage 1, social science techniques will be combined with community-driven approaches to collect information that will guide the development of the tests. In Stage 2, tests for a particular contaminant will be tested with users to understand how tests can be optimized for maximum user benefit. In Stage 3, tests will be given to users, and surveys will be used to measure changes in their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors about the three specific water contaminants before and after tests are performed. Importantly, each stage will integrate the perspectives of community stakeholders through the establishment of a community advisory board. Education and outreach activities will be performed to train a diverse group of students to combine multiple disciplines to tackle global challenges in partnership with affected communities.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.

全球水危机是我们时代最紧迫的问题之一。全球数十亿人面临因水污染引起的水安全问题，导致不利的经济，政治，营养以及心理和身体后果。但是，对水测试方法的可及性有限是了解水安全的关键障碍。因此，该提案旨在通过开发三阶段的方法来解决水质和水不安全感采取行动的需求，以设计，开发和分布的快速家庭水质监测测试。水测试平台是基于从研究天然微生物如何检测到环境中水污染物的知识，从而使分子工程原理可用于以可通过非专家操作的安全格式重新利用这些感应机制。本研究使用生物学，化学，工程和社会科学技术的新型组合，将研究在家测试水质的能力如何改变与水获取和使用相关的个人的知识，态度和行为。愿景是，这种合成生物学平台将通过向个人和社区提供可行的信息，从而对全球水危机的经济，政治和健康影响有助于减轻其日常生活并告知缓解策略的可行信息。这种新的水质监测方法将与更大的芝加哥社区合作建立，以检测铅（PB），铜（CU），以及二氟烷基物质（PFA），这是三种是主要公共法规和关注的主题。在第1阶段，社会科学技术将与社区驱动的方法相结合，以收集指导测试发展的信息。在第2阶段，将对特定污染物的测试与用户进行测试，以了解如何优化测试以获得最大的用户利益。在第3阶段中，将向用户进行测试，并将使用调查来衡量其知识，态度和对测试前后三种特定水污染物的行为的变化。重要的是，每个阶段将通过成立社区顾问委员会来整合社区利益相关者的观点。将进行教育和外展活动，以培训一群学生，以与受影响社区的合作结合多个学科，以应对全球挑战。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准通过评估来获得支持。