Eva Rose Balog - US grants

Non-technical
Across disciplines ranging from biomedicine to consumer electronics to national security, nanoscience is contributing to breakthroughs in science and technology. This Major Research Instrumentation award provides funds for the acquisition of an environmental atomic force microscope (AFM) called the Asylum Research Cypher ES, an extremely versatile, high-speed, high-resolution instrument for imaging, probing, and manipulating materials and processes in fluids at the nanoscale (billionths of a meter). University of New England (UNE) and regional university faculty, staff, and students in biology, marine science, chemistry, physics, and biochemistry will use this instrument to study a wide range of natural and engineered biomaterials. The instrument will enhance research productivity and provide students with valuable hands-on training on state-of-the-art microscopy techniques. UNE seeks to recruit a diverse and talented student population in one of the least ethnically diverse states in the country. The majority of UNE students are women, and many represent the first generation of their family to go to college. By reaching out to this underserved population the project will make a tremendous impact in providing high quality educational and professional training opportunities. To enable students to better appreciate relationships between biomaterials structure and function, the project will use 3-D printing to create models of nanoscale structures from AFM data that can be handled and touched. The integration of AFM and 3-D printing facilitates an especially exciting opportunity in the introduction of nanoscale structures and nanotechnology experimental techniques to people who are blind or visually impaired. The training takes advantage of a broad range of UNE faculty and staff expertise, including nationally-ranked institutional excellence in online education.

The Asylum Research Cypher ES environmental atomic force microscope (AFM) replaces aging hardware and complements modern imaging methodologies in the Microscope Core Facility (MCF) at the University of England (UNE). This microscope will increase research productivity and educational quality in Maine through provision of a unique regional environmental scanning probe microscopy resource. The Cypher ES will allow for the use of a wide variety of near field probing (ultra-high resolution, elastic, magnetic, electric and Kelvin probe forces) and fast scanning rates for diverse research questions including examining microbial biofilm and sheath formation, characterizing topographic and viscoelastic properties of environmentally-sensitive protein- and polymer-based nanomaterials, and exploring the architecture and composition of mineralized arthropod cuticle. The modular design of the instrument means that it is expandable to add new capabilities as needs arise. Training of UNE students, staff and faculty in AFM theory and practice will take place through a hybrid of online, face-to-face, and supplementary macroscopic 3-D printing instruction. The instrument will serve as an attractive tool to increase collaborative research, e.g., with colleagues at the University of Maine, Orono, and the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Boothbay Harbor. This instrument will be a unique resource for biomaterials characterization in northern New England.

Collaborative Project PI Halpern, Jeffrey M./Balog, Eva Rose M.

The purpose of this project is to develop a new method of measuring carotenoid rapidly in complex fluids. The approach proposed in this project has not been investigated previously and if successful, easy measurement will be possible benefiting society at large as increasing number of products enter the market place indicating high carotenoid levels in food and food supplements.

The objective of the proposed work is to develop a selective and sensitive biosensor using elastin-like polymers (ELP) and electrochemical detection. We focus on the detection of astaxanthin, an important antioxidants that has been difficult to detect selectively in serum. The goal of this EAGER proposal is to obtain preliminary data towards the development of a carotenoid sensor that is capable of rapidly measuring in complex fluids. The focus will be towards improving the understanding of (1) ELP response under electric field; (2) the electrochemical activity of surface-immobilized ELPs, and (3) introduction of analyte specificity via a modular fusion protein component. The expected results will lead to using engineered electrochemically-tagged carotenoid-binding elastin-like polymer fusion proteins to monitor astaxanthin in complex matrix. While protein-protein interactions and synthetic stimuli-responsive polymers have growing niches in sensing technology, the merits of both are uniquely combined in the proposed research. By conjugating an electrochemical tag to elastin-like polymers, their stimuli-responsive behavior should be detectable using voltammetric sensors. Stimuli-responsive behavior will be monitored by comparing the collapsed against the extended state of electrochemically tagged elastin-like polymers located on the sensor surface. Using electrochemically-tagged crustacyanin-elastin-like polymer fusion proteins, binding of astaxanthin will be monitored. Finally, specificity will be tested by measuring astaxanthin in a solution with multiple carotenoids (i.e. lutein and beta-carotene). There is public benefit in quantitative understanding of the role of carotenoids in human health. Better sensing technology is needed to create accurate basic biochemical research to investigate carotenoid uptake and promote healthy carotenoid levels. In addition, techniques developed in this project for carotenoids can be extended to other protein-analytes. The research project will be integrating University of New England and University of New Hampshire researchers in cross-disciplinary research with opportunities for all students. Open seminar at University of New England for the general community will be offered with presentations by the undergraduate students.

An award is made to the University of New England (UNE) in Biddeford, Maine, to acquire a FlowCam Imaging Particle Analysis System to strengthen instrumentation for multidisciplinary research and teaching at a primary undergraduate institution. The FlowCam system will allow multiple faculty to extend their current work to the "plankton/particulate" level, and/or start new plankton/particulate-oriented projects. The FlowCam will also be used in teaching of multiple classes in several departments, in local high schools, and will support undergraduate research projects in context of a current NSF IUSE grant. Every year more than 430 undergraduates in at least 7 courses at UNE and at least 120 high school students at 2 high schools will work on FlowCam projects.

Phytoplankton, zooplankton and detritus play important roles in the oceans food webs as primary producers and key food sources at the base of the food web. Including plankton/particulate-level analyses in studies on the reproduction of invasive species, fish diversity, bivalve feeding and growth rates and more will significantly increase our understanding of the respective processes and benefit several key local marine issues. Research projects will include such diverse areas as: interactions between two invasive crustacean crab species, a long-term biomonitoring study on phyto- and zooplankton, ichthyoplankton distribution and diversity in a small river plume, field investigations of the use of detritus by bivalves, plankton composition and structure in four lakes as it relates to climate change and watershed perturbations, and flow imaging technology for evaluation of elastin-like polymer coacervates.