Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

We request funding to purchase a robotic system that will reproducibly dispense extremely small (i.e., picolitre) volumes of liquids into complex arrays with a high degree of accuracy. This equipment will enable researchers to enhance their discovery and development of new molecular and nanomaterial targets. Chemists will create high-throughput techniques to prepare and evaluate the properties of new molecular or nano-scale therapies, new reagents for insect management that are both economically and environmentally sound, and new materials for enhanced proton or charge transport. New techniques will also be developed by chemists to improve our knowledge of the influences of chemical species on the human microbiome. Chemists and engineers will collaboratively develop more effective biosensors for point-of-use medical devices, low-cost digital techniques for high throughput molecular detection, and portable colour-changing gas sensors. Physicists and chemists will also develop high throughput techniques for understanding the activity and function of molecular species on cellular biomechanics, bacterial metabolism, and enzyme activity. The pico-scale liquid dispensing system (pLDS) would include image recognition software, a high resolution stage, and cameras to align droplets with substrate features, including accurately positioning droplets on existing drops. The pLDS would dispense reagents and withdraw precise sample volumes of the products at specified time intervals, allowing researchers to create combinatorial approaches to optimize synthetic processes (e.g., varying catalyst types and concentrations) and to analyze the properties of their products. Reaction kinetics could be inferred from these analyses to optimize the preparation of specific molecular targets, polymers and nanomaterials. Researchers will also gain new insight into the design of synthetic targets by correlating the properties of their products to the composition and structure of these products. On an annual basis, 40 highly qualified personnel will receive hands-on training and access to the pLDS, giving them skills in the use of robotic systems to dispense liquids, to optimize synthetic processes, to create new scientific tools, and to screen structure-function correlations. Canadians will benefit from the development of new molecules, materials, and devices with direct applications to existing challenges in healthcare, environmental management, and energy efficiency. Specific examples include new materials that improve the energy efficiency of fuel cells and photovoltaics, and new nanomaterials and molecules with therapeutic applications. Additional examples include new point-of-use sensors for detecting either toxic gases or new markers of disease conditions, and platforms to create new knowledge in biophysics, biochemistry, materials chemistry and physical chemistry.