GOALI: Carbon dots and squarylium dyes for sensing, screening, and separations

Wake Forest University, Winston Salem NC

Investigators

Abstract

With funding from the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program of the National Science Foundation's Chemistry Division, Professor Christa Colyer of Wake Forest University is developing new strategies for enhanced drug screening. This project uses the Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) program to support an academic - industry partnership with Dr. Greg McIntire of Ameritox, Ltd.. This research project also includes an international component, that involves student travel opportunities to engage with Japanese collaborators. Thus, this work is also supported by the Office of International Science and Engineering. The work responds to the emergence of designer drugs such as "bath salts" as well as to recent legislative changes at the state level. Basic research is translated into analytical tools capable of addressing these market-driven and socially-relevant issues facing the forensic testing, law enforcement, and medication monitoring industries. Within this context, advances in the areas of nanomaterials development, fluorescence sensing, and high-resolution molecular separations, are being pursued. The research project includes: (i) a genuine partnership between industry (Ameritox, Ltd.) and academia (Wake Forest University), enabled by close proximity and successful prior institutional interactions; (ii) exposure of students to industry practices and standards as a path to career readiness to complement their undergraduate and Ph.D. chemistry training; and (iii) enhanced international collaborations (with Osaka Prefecture and Saitama Universities in Japan), offering expertise in ligand development and fluorescent dye synthesis. These activities accelerate the proposed research while providing opportunities for the development of increased global and cultural competencies of the involved students. The broader impacts of this research include an international study and cultural sensitivity for global scientific collaboration, case study development for a flipped analytical chemistry classroom, and laboratory curriculum development in the area of instrument design and fabrication by additive manufacturing for the provision of low-cost analytical tools to public schools for enhanced education. To provide enhanced drug screening through an academic - industrial partnership, this research project employs the focusing effects characteristic of transient isotachophoresis to provide enhanced sensitivity and resolution in free solution, capillary-based electroseparations. Advances include on-column labeling with novel, functionalized squarylium dye design, and improved analyte discrimination based on multiple discriminant analysis. These components facilitate selective determination of drug and drug metabolites (such as synthetic cathinones and glucuronide metabolites) in complex sample matrices, as required by confirmation testing in the medication monitoring industry. Furthermore, the ability to rapidly discover functional ligands in the form of DNA aptamers, capable of screening for drug targets, represents an alternative to the ubiquitous use of enzyme immunoassay screening procedures. This research employs carbon dots to both fluorescently tag and modify the mobility of unbound DNA library members, thus enabling expedited DNA aptamer discovery for specific targets.