Microfluidic modelling and optimisation of statistical design for shape measurement in resistive pulse sensing: pilot project

电阻脉冲传感中形状测量的微流体建模和统计设计优化：试点项目

• 批准号: EP/W006294/1
• 负责人: Marco Mazza
• 金额: $ 10.27万
• 依托单位: Loughborough University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FW006294%2F1
• 关键词: Microfluidic; modelling; optimisation; statistical; design

A fruit juice company needs an efficient way to monitor beverages for bacterial contamination. A marine conservation research group needs a way to detect and characterise micro and nanoplastic contamination in ocean water and in the stomach fluids of marine animals. A researcher developing bacteriophage therapies needs to be able to tell the proportion of active phages in a sample. Each of these applications requires a method for detecting and characterising very small particles suspended in liquids. Resistive Pulse Sensing (RPS) is a technology that has been used for counting and determining the size distributions for micro to nano scale particles in solution. Recent work by the PI and her collaborators has demonstrated that RPS technology also has the potential to yield shape information for such particles. Adding this capacity to RPS technology would make it possible to distinguish different bacteria (rod shaped versus sphere shaped), characterise the shape of micro and nanoplastics (which is believed to influence their bioactivity), and distinguish active from inactive phages in a sample. This research project will develop a three dimensional model of the microfluidics, electrostatics and pulse generation in RPS sensors for a range of pore geometries and particle shapes. This will then be used to develop a statistically optimised pore design and a signal processing algorithm that will for the first time permit RPS technology to produce a shape measurement for particles. In collaboration with researchers in analytical science developing novel RPS sensors, as well as with end-users from the drinks industry, marine conservation and bacteriophage research, the pore design will be realised, and the signal processing algorithm tested on a range of relevant samples to produce a next generation RPS device.

一家果汁公司需要一种有效的方法来监测细菌污染的饮料。海洋保护研究小组需要一种方法来检测和表征海水中的微型和纳米塑性污染，以及海洋动物的胃液中。开发噬菌体疗法的研究人员需要能够分辨出样品中主动噬菌体的比例。这些应用中的每一个都需要一种检测和表征悬浮在液体中的非常小的颗粒的方法。电阻脉冲传感（RPS）是一种用于计数和确定溶液中微型至纳米尺度颗粒的尺寸分布的技术。 PI和她的合作者最近的工作表明，RPS技术也有可能产生此类粒子的形状信息。将这种能力添加到RPS技术中，可以区分不同的细菌（杆状与球体形状），表征微塑料和纳米塑料的形状（据信会影响其生物活性），并将活动与样品中的无效噬菌体区分开。该研究项目将在RPS传感器中开发一个微流体，静电和脉冲产生的三维模型，用于一系列孔的几何形状和颗粒形状。然后，这将用于开发统计优化的孔设计和信号处理算法，该算法首次允许RPS技术生成颗粒的形状测量。通过与开发新型RPS传感器的分析科学研究人员以及饮料行业，海洋保护和噬菌体研究的最终用户的合作，将实现孔设计，并在一系列相关样品上测试的信号处理算法，以生产下一代RPS设备。