Marya Lieberman - US grants

This starter grant award of the Chemistry Division to the University of Notre Dame supports the research of Professor Marya Lieberman. The research focuses on crosslinking reactions applied to the synthesis and analysis of layered materials. Initial studies are carried out with layered metal organophosphonates and organophosphates, which consist of layers of metal phosphonate connected by layers of organic spacer molecules. Each organic spacer is synthetically modified to include a photochemically- or electrochemically-activated crosslinker, whose function is to connect a known number of adjacent molecules in a specific manner. The modified spacers are mixed with appropriate metal salts to form layered materials. Activation of the crosslinker forms molecular adducts trapped within the layered material. The study of crosslinking chemistry leads to information on defects, structural rearrangements, and possible metastable materials. This research advances fundamental understanding of the synthesis and structure of layered materials by developing crosslinking reactions as an analytical and a synthetic tool that can be applied to molecular monolayers on surfaces and inside layered materials.

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Lieberman
This project aims to develop ways to use chemically patterned surfaces as templates for the growth of nanoscale particles. Microcontact printing in a self-asssembled monolayer will be used to anchor the growth of multilayer materials. The particles will be detached from the substrate by severing easily cleaved bonds that have been synthesized into the anchoring self-assembled monolayer, leaving intact the chemically patterned surface for further use - a ditto machine for generating particles. The goal is also to be able to generate novel particle topographies and to make copies of particles in solution. Initially, the materials focus will be on layered metal phosphonates consisting of stacked sheets of metal phosphonates covalently linked by densely packed organic pillaring groups where a cycle of delamination and regrowth could lead to exponential amplification of the nanoparticles similar to processes known to occur in biochemical systems. The integration of research themes together with a focus on educational themes that emphasize chemistry and public policy for non-science majors will be developed and tested as supporting materials to be incorporated into the chemistry curriculum.
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This research and education involving fundamental investigations of materials chemistry is directed at technological applications in several environmental areas to illustrate materials chemistry in practice - in industry, government, and the courts - to show students how it is used in the real world.
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This project, funded by the Chemistry Division, supports Dr. Marya Lieberman and other members of the Chemistry and Engineering Departments at Notre Dame University in establishing and conducting a new Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site in chemistry. For the period 2000-2002, 36 undergraduate students will spend 8-10 weeks each conducting summer research in synthesizing, characterizing and modeling materials to provide insight at the atomic level into their properties. In addition to work on individual research problems, participants will hear weekly seminars by the faculty and attend a series of mini courses on topics related to nano(atomic)scale phenomena such as aerosol chemistry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and electron microscopy. At the conclusion of the summer program each participant will present her/his findings at a research symposium. Students will achieve a realistic understanding of the demands of independent chemical research and gain self confidence in pursuing such studies.

What we will do: Five levels of hierarchical self-assembly will be used to control the placement of single nanoparticles and inorganic molecules over areas that are hundreds of microns in size. Self-assembly and enzymatic processing steps will be used to create
DNA tiles

1 and multi-tile "rafts" that have dimensions in the 4-60 nm size range. The tiles will contain derivatization sites at known spatial locations to permit attachment of non-DNA components. Up to six different molecules or nanoparticles could be attached to each DNA tile. Molecular liftoff

2 will be used to direct the binding of the DNA rafts to lithographic features, such as 30 nm lines. The dimensions of the DNA rafts are similar to the dimensions of the lithographic features, so individual molecules that are attached to the rafts will be placed on the surface with great control and could be located near other lithographic structures. These capabilities would be very useful for construction of molecular quantum-dot cellular automata circuits and other molecular electronic devices.

Intellectual Merit: This project will: -explore hierarchical design as a tool for creation of supramolecular complexity -extend molecular liftoff, which has previously been used only for small inorganic molecules, to biomolecules such as DNA. -integrate top-down and bottom-up approaches to the fabrication of structures on the nanometer to micron size scale

Broader impact: This proposal combines detailed control over local physical structure with ultra-high resolution nanolithography to create non-repetitive arrays of the types required for large-scale implementation of different architectures for molecular electronics.

3 DNA will be used as a self-assembling circuit board for active components, which could include nanoparticles, other biomolecules, and small organic or inorganic molecules. This method could be used to construct technologically useful devices, such as molecular electronic field-programmable gate arrays that are integrated with I/O structures on a silicon chip.

This award provides funding to the University of Notre Dame for a three-year REU Sie Program entitled, "Nano-Bio Engineering at the University of Notre Dame," under the direction of Dr. Marya Lieberman. This ten-week summer program will provide in depth research opportunities for 12-14 students per year (plus an additional 3-5 international students) in projects which apply nanofabrication and mathematical modeling to biological or biochemical problems, or which draw on biological approaches to solve engineering problems. This REU Site will give students and faculty pariticpants a chance to carry out collaborative research in the "nano-bio" area and students will become part of an interdisciplinary team.

This proposal was received in response to Nanoscale Science and Engineering Initiative, NSF 03-043, category NIRT (Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team). A new nanoscale manufacturing technique - nanoscale electromolecular lithography (NEL) is designed for the fabrication of nanoscale patterns on self-assembled molecular resists by using an electric mask. In this project, the merits of high-speed and scalable top-down engineering techniques will be combined with high-resolution bottom-up self-assembly processes to create a practical, reliable, and robust nano-manufacturing technique for general application. Molecules will be designed and synthesized with specific recognition elements to direct the formation of low-defect, self-assembled molecular monolayers into pre-programmed patterns. A planar NEL mask with nanoscale conductive patterns will be brought into electrical contact with the molecular resist, and an electric field will be applied locally to the molecules. The patterns on the masks will be transferred to the molecular resist by an electrochemical "stamping" process in which the electric field either cleaves a portion of the molecule from the surface or breaks the crosslinks between the molecules.

The essence and the recent explosion of nanotechnology research can be traced directly to advances in the ability to manufacture small nanostructures - as small as ten thousandth the diameter of a human hair reproducibly, reliably, and robustly. Although a wide range of nano-manufacturing techniques has been developed, they all have different intrinsic problems and limitations. This NIRT project plans to create a practical, reliable, and robust nano-manufacturing technique by using electric field generated by small patterns on a mask to write patterns on molecular resists. The advances anticipated from the interdisciplinary efforts are at the pioneering forefronts of chemistry, electrochemistry, and engineering. Given the expertise of the team, there is a plan to apply NEL to the fabrication of nanoscale molecular electric circuits and nanoscale chemical/bio sensors. The confluence of fundamental studies on a problem with commercial potential is the perfect avenue to educate students in state-of-the-art-techniques so that they will become skilled in the advanced practices of their fields. Additionally, the team will support and expand the current efforts of UCLA researchers to introduce high school students to nanotechnology.

NIRT: Field-effect switching of molecular charge configuration for QCA

This proposal was received in response to Nanoscale Science and Engineering initiative, NSF 03-043, category NIRT. Single-molecule quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) cells are realized by designing molecules with multiple redox centers. The distribution of molecular charge among the redox centers represents binary information. The key to QCA behavior is that a local electric field, the "driver field," due to a neighboring molecule alters the charge configuration of another molecule in a nonlinear way. Demonstration of field-effect switching of molecular charge configuration is the focus of the proposed research. The use of scanning probes with molecular resolution is crucial to this investigation. Our strategy is to use chemical variation of mixed-valence pieces to remove any ambiguities in the interpretation of our results.

Shrinking electronic devices to the single-molecule level may require abandoning the notion of using transistors to represent binary information. The research is exploring a different approach - using molecules, which can exist in two different configurations to encode the binary information. This approach, called quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA), has already been demonstrated at a larger length scale using small metal dots. We are investigating one aspect of a molecular QCA implementation - the switching of one molecule by the influence of a neighboring molecule. This problem is at the heart of the molecular QCA concept, which if successful would enable device densities perhaps a million times greater than those possible with silicon transistors.

ABSTRACT
CCF-0541324
PI: Niemier, Michael T. and Liebermann, Marya
Institution: University of Notre Dame

Title: Design and study of self-assembling QCA circuits

Molecular Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) is an end-of-roadmap alternative to silicon-based computation. Logical operations and data movement are accomplished via Coulomb interactions between QCA cells that have bistable charge configurations. This basic device-device interaction can allow for the computation of any Boolean logic function. Molecular QCA systems are expected to operate at room temperature, could potentially offer densities and speeds that are at least two orders of magnitude beyond what end-of-the-curve CMOS can provide, and are expected to dissipate very little power. Tools exist which allow circuit designs to be directly translated into QCA cell layouts. However, there is currently no manufacturing process that can position QCA molecules to form QCA circuits with the necessary sub-nm precision.

This proposal attacks the positioning problem from both an experimental and a design perspective. The work focuses on the design of computationally interesting QCA systems (i.e. logic that would facilitate tasks like image processing) that might actually be built using a process of self-assembly and guided assembly. The work will develop processes for self-assembly in solution of mesoscale (1-100 nm) circuitboards (DNA structures), to which molecular QCA cells or other components would attach, and use a new process for guided self-assembly of DNA circuitboards on lithographic features on silicon. The systems target, data convolution, can be accomplished with systolic architectures that map well to QCAs device architecture, and the resulting molecular circuitry could eventually provide enhanced data processing capabilities for CMOS chips.

There will be a unique interplay between physical science and computer science with work in design influencing what experiments are actually conducted. Closing the feedback loop, experimental science will refine work in design. The net result should be accelerated progress toward realizable systems.

Project ID: 0702705
Title: Recon_guration and Defect Tolerance in Quantum-dot Cellular Automata Based Nano-Devices
PI: Xiaobo Sharon Hu
Co-PIs: Marya Lieberman, Wolfgang Porod
Inst: University of Notre Dame



ABSTRACT
NSF Unit Consideration: CPA - Foundations of Computing Processes and Artifacts
The proposed work is on constructing reconfigurable logic and devising defect detection, diagnosis and tolerance techniques for Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) based nano-scale devices. QCA- based devices differ fundamentally from traditional CMOS ones. They have the potential to alleviate challenges from interconnects and power consumption as CMOS device sizes continue to shrink. Basic QCA constructs have been experimentally demonstrated with both semiconductor quantum dots and nano-magnets. Implementing QCA devices with molecular charge containers has also shown great
promise. Though being a promising computing paradigm, QCA faces a same challenge as all other nano-scale devices. That is, defect rates are expected to be high. Reconfigurable logic and defect tolerance design are considered to be two powerful means to circumvent the effects of high defect rates. This project will significantly extend the state-of-the-art in constructing reconfigurable logic under the QCA model.

Successful completion of the project will lead to both novel reconfigurable logic constructs and new defect detection and diagnosis schemes. The proposed work will help predict whether it is practical to fabricate large scale QCA-based reconfigurable circuits, and whether such circuits can become a strong contender as a post-CMOS computing alternative. The proposed work will have a significant impact not only within the design community but also in the physical science community. It will contribute new knowledge in designing reconfigurable logic and circuits in the context of charge-coupled computing models. It will also play an important role in providing valuable feedback to physical scientists working on exploring various technologies for implementing QCA devices. As an integral part of the proposed work, a new course module on QCA- based computing will be developed, which emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature in this exciting
research area. A systematic endeavor will be made in recruiting undergraduate students, especially from the under-represented groups, to participate in the project.

Workshop on Design of DNA Origami
to be held 26 April, 2010


This proposal will support a day long workshop on design of DNA origami immediately prior to the 7th conference on the Foundations of Nanoscience (FNANO 2010).
Intellectual Merit
The workshop is designed to outfit each participant with information and tools that will enable them to design DNA nanostructures using the templated DNA origami method. Participants will return to their home institutions equipped with software, DNA sequence information, experimental hints and tips, and experience with AFM imaging that will allow them to design, fabricate and image a test origami structure. Workshop participants will also have the opportunity to attend the 2010 FNANO meeting, which this year features a double track on self-assembled DNA nanostructures. Most of the main researchers in DNA origami (Nadrian Seeman, Paul Rothemund, William Shih, Ebbe Andersen, Eric Winfree, Satoshi Murata, Masayuki Endo, Akinori Kuzuya, Hao Yan, Chengde Mao, Thom LaBean) attend this meeting. Coupling the workshop with the conference will enable younger scientists (postdocs, grad students, and junior faculty) to interact professionally with many of the top researchers in DNA origami.
Broader Impact
The workshop will be open to up to 15 NSF-supported participants, including 5 graduate students, 5 postdocs, and 5 junior faculty members. The workshop will be publicized to attract a wide range of applicants, who will be selected by the conference and program chairs of FNANO. The chairs will choose participants who are relatively new to FNANO, who will increase the diversity of the conference attendees, and who are likely to actually put the workshop content to use in their research.

With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program, Professor Marya Lieberman from University of Notre Dame and colleagues Paul Bohn, Patricia Maurice, Peter Burns and Franklin Tao will acquire an X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometer (XPS). The award will enhance research training and education at all levels, especially in areas such as (a) semiconductor and polymer surface chemistry of "smart" materials, (b) studies of self-assembled monolayers, biomolecule/surface adhesion, (c) DNA damage and repair, (d) catalyst design and characterization as well as libraries of materials, (e) reaction mechanisms of catalysts, (f) surface chemistry of actinide minerals, and (g) soil and mineral surface chemistry.

X-ray photoelectron spectrometers are used for chemical analysis. The XPS technique quantitatively measures elemental composition, empirical formula, chemical state and electronic state of the elements in a given material. A sample is irradiated with a beam of monochromatic X-rays and the kinetic energies of the resulting photoelectrons are measured and related to specific elements. XPS often plays a crucial role in defining the system under study. The technique requires the use of ultra high vacuum conditions. The work to be carried out by these investigators represents a wide array of systems requiring surface characterization. The instrumentation will be used in research activities and also for research training and education of a large number of students from diverse backgrounds and will serve for outreach activities to neighboring institutions such as Saint Mary's College, Indiana University South Bend and Indiana University Northwest.

This award from the Division of Chemistry (CHE) at the National Science Foundation supports a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site led by Professors Marya Lieberman and Toni L. Barstis at the University of Notre Dame. This REU site and its companion faculty research program will train students and faculty from primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) to design, develop, and test novel analytical methods and instruments for use in low resource settings. It will give early career students a chance to use their science or engineering knowledge and skills to help people in the poorest nations of the world. The projects will be aimed at different goals such as to identify low quality pharmaceuticals, diagnose human and animal diseases, detect environmental contamination or food adulteration, and discover and manage bacterial drug resistance. The experience will empower the participants to use their science knowledge and skills to solve real problems, and it will enlarge their view of themselves as global citizens and agents of change.

The objective of this REU site is to bring chemical analysis out of the lab and into the world, particularly in resource-limited locations. Students will study diagnostic tools and technology, portable instruments, sample-collection/analysis methods, or new ideas for remote imaging or monitoring, and they will also learn about the differences between technological infrastructure in developed and developing countries. The intellectual focus of the site is developing and testing better (cheaper, faster, more practical) ways to perform chemical analyses that are relevant to problems in developing countries. Students will study diagnostic tools & technology, portable instruments and sample-collection/analysis methods. The target analytes may be biological (disease markers, pathogens) or chemical (falsified drugs, environmental contaminants, organophosphates in the cooking oil). To develop analytical methodology and instruments that work reliably outside a controlled lab setting is a both a challenge and an opportunity for students to apply their budding skills in building instruments, designing experiments and rigorously analyzing data.

With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) and Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities (CRIF) programs, Professor Amanda Hummon from the University of Notre Dame and colleagues Bradley Smith, Marya Lieberman and Michelle Joyce have acquired a matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer (MALDI-TOF-TOF MS) with collision-induced dissociation (CID) capabilities. In general, mass spectrometry (MS) is one of the key analytical methods used to identify and characterize small quantities of chemical species embedded in complex mixture. A laser striking the inert mixture embedded with the sample, vaporizes and makes charged particles (ions) from the sample. The ions pass into the mass spectrometer where the masses of the parent ion and its fragment ions are measured. In a time-of-flight instrument the ions are accelerated by an electric field to allow further characterization. MALDI TOF combines gentle ionization (ideal for producing intact ions of peptides, proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, synthetic polymers, and other similarly sized species) with a detection mode that offers an excellent balance between sensitivity and accuracy across a wide mass range. The collision-induced dissociation breaks up the molecular ions in the gas phase. This highly sensitive technique allows identification and determination of the structure of molecules in a complex mixture. The acquisition strengthens the research infrastructure at the University and region. The instrument broadens participation by involving diverse students in research and research training with this modern analytical technique. Because the principal investigator is heavily involved in mentoring students from underrepresented groups and the local Girl Scouts, this instrumentation exposes those students to mass spectrometry techniques and STEM activities.

such The award is aimed at enhancing research and education at all levels, especially in: (a) screening of paper substrates and milk; (b) screening for drugs in dried urine spots; (c) characterizing self-assembled supramolecular organic dyes; (d) developing imaging mass spectrometry of platinum compounds; (e) correlating mass spectrometry imaging and confocal Raman microscopy; (f) using plasmon-assisted laser-desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) with gold nanoparticles for the detection of saccharides; (g) studying xenopus laevis developmental biology and (h) using MALDI for metabolomics.

EPA and state regulations require that officials at hundreds of public beaches test water at least once every week to detect organisms found in sewage that can make people sick. Detection of viruses associated with sewage, such as coliphage, requires sending a water sample to an off-site laboratory. In the lab, the samples are spread onto petri dishes covered with a smooth lawn of host bacteria. In about 24 hours, the virus causes visible clear areas called plaques to form in the lawn of bacteria. The plaques are counted and results are sent back. The process takes 2-3 days and costs $20-50. This I-Corps team has designed a test kit for detecting fecal matter viruses in contaminated recreational water. The team genetically engineered a strain of E. coli bacteria so that when particular types of virus are present, the bacteria produce a red color. The intensity of the red color that develops is related to the amount of bacteriophage present in the contaminated water. The test can be run in less than 4 hours, offering a considerable competitive advantage over current virus detection methods. It will be easy to use and to read, detecting the coliphage with a simple color change. This would help officials at the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) and the Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) to test the water at a beach in the morning, and post the same day contamination status or close the beach before people are exposed to contaminated water conditions.

This project offers a swift and inexpensive way to detect harmful coliphage virus contamination in recreational waters. This team's main goals and the scope of this I-Corps team project are to: (1) Develop a prototype kit and compare its performance with gold standard methods. Lab space will be rented at Innovation Park in South Bend. Various field representatives at IDEM have offered to provide water samples and share their "gold standard" lab results, which will help the team validate the kit's performance on real samples. (2) Evaluate which market--regulatory, educational, recreational boaters - would be the best starting point for commercialization of the kit. This team intend to conduct several interviews during the I-Corps program. Interviews and hands-on demos with prospective purchasers of the kit would be the team's main method to evaluate the usability of the kit and its strongest initial market.

This IRES student training project will support research experiences in Nepal and Kenya by a total of 15 students (12 undergraduate and 3 graduate students) over three years. The students will develop, produce and evaluate paper-based devices used to test pharmaceutical quality and water quality. The primary goal of the project is to help students become more passionate about the power of science and engineering to solve global challenges while also developing valuable analysis and design skills. The project is led by principal investigator (PI) Dr. Toni Barstis of St. Mary's College, with co-PIs Dr. Reena Lamichhane Khadka and Dr. Donald Paetkau also of St. Mary's, and Dr. Marya Lieberman of the University of Notre Dame. The international mentors are Dr. Basant Giri of the Kathmandu Institute of Applied Sciences in Nepal, and Dr. Beatrice Jakait and Dr. Sonak Pastakia of the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare program (AMPATH) in Kenya.

Estimates suggest that in developing countries such as Nepal and Kenya up to 30% of the medicines are falsified or substandard and up to 90% of the water sources may be contaminated with bacteria. However, most tests used in the U.S. to evaluate water or pharmaceutical purity are too complicated for use in developing countries, requiring steady power sources, ultrapure water or other expensive materials. The paper-based assays that this project will develop and evaluate are low-cost, require only small volumes of liquid, use readily available materials, and require no power source. The devices and this training have potential value anywhere a cheap, easy to use testing method is needed. Through this project U.S. students will have the opportunity to build competency as global scientists and engineers by developing collaborative relationships with students and research mentors in Nepal and Kenya, and seeing how their scientific knowledge can make a difference in communities. Applicants will be primarily chosen from St. Mary's College, an all-women liberal arts college, and from alumni of a Notre Dame REU that targeted students from primarily undergraduate institutions and included many women, first generation-to-attend-college students and underrepresented minorities, providing strong potential for this project to include a diverse range of student participants.

Three cohorts of U.S. students will conduct research in the summers of 2017-2019 to develop paper-based, milli-fluidic analytical devices (PADs) to analyze pharmaceuticals and drinking water. Students will design and field-test the devices, comparing the outcomes from the PADs with "gold standard" analytical methods including High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Mass Spectrometry (MS). Students will work at sites in Nepal and Kenya, where previous international collaborations by the PIs have laid the groundwork for safe living and working conditions for the participants and where the students can make genuinely useful contributions to ongoing projects led by the Nepali and Kenyan mentors. U.S. students traveling to Nepal and Kenya will first work together at their home institutions designing and manufacturing PADs, while in electronic contact with their international mentors and the international students who will be part of the research teams. The U.S. students will then spend at least four weeks in their respective country collecting samples, conducting field and lab testing, engaging in cultural activities, and meeting with experts and community members impacted by the research. Students will also be in electronic contact with the other country group to compare data and experiences during the time abroad. The summer program will conclude at the home institutions with further analyses and data validation, presentation locally and with international students electronically, and report preparation for presentation to the appropriate country agencies. Users of the research results may include: WHO RapidAlert Network, the Nepali Department of Drug Administration, the Nepal Water Supply Corporation, UNICEF-Nepal, and the Kenyan Pharmacy and Poisons Board.

In this project, funded by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry program of the Chemistry Division, Professors Jon Camden and Marya Lieberman of the University of Notre Dame and Professor David Jenkins of the University of Tennessee are developing robust, reusable, and highly specific nanoparticles for ultrasensitive detection of chemical species in complex biological and chemical systems. To meet this challenge, special and unique chemical modification of the surface of these nanoparticles is done. After modification of the surfaces, these particles can be applied to serve as sensors for specific molecules. This effort is also focusing on devising new methods of analysis that can be used in low-resource environments and drug testing. The highly collaborative nature will benefit students working in these labs. The success of this research has the potential to impact a wide range of sensor applications such as imaging cells, detecting trace contaminants, and analyzing samples outside of a laboratory setting.

The unique optical properties of plasmonic nanoparticles and plasmonic assemblies has driven an explosion of new sensing and imaging modalities over the past several decades. The wide-reaching impact of functionalized metallic nanostructures is evidenced by studies which range from fundamental research to commercial applications. In this work, a transformative functionalization approach based on N-heterocyclic carbenes is employed for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). This collaborative effort specifically targets a regenerative sensor for hydrogen peroxide and an in vitro pH sensor with expanded range. Additionally, procedures are established that make NHC functionalized films and colloids available to a non-specialist audience by proposing a "one-pot" synthesis of modified surfaces from conventional imidazoliums. These demonstrations will showcase how effective this new technology is for the broader chemical sensing community.

This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) will advance the national health, welfare, and prosperity by studying ways to detect and disrupt the supply networks for falsified pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs. Falsified pharmaceuticals harm hundreds of thousands of patients in the developing world, as well as injuring Americans when they penetrate the U.S. pharmaceutical supply. Illicit drugs, such as opioids, are the cause of more deaths in the U.S. than automobile accidents or gun violence. Analyzing pharmaceuticals using traditional methods is time-consuming and expensive, so producers and distributors often escape discovery. This research will utilize an inexpensive paper analytic device (PAD) in the form of a test card that can be deployed by community health workers and ordinary citizens, that is capable of detecting active ingredients and fillers in a pill or powder within 5 minutes. By swiftly identifying of the types of fillers used, counterfeit pharmaceuticals or illicit drugs in several different locations can be linked, and researchers can begin to reverse engineer the supply chain to identify the source of the product and its distribution channels. Effective deployment strategies for test cards will be developed, and data visualization tools can then be provided to enable local regulatory agencies to act quickly to trace and disrupt suppliers of falsified medicines or illicit drugs. The project will involve both graduate students, focused on detection of fake medicines and supply chain vulnerabilities in low resource settings, and undergraduates, focused on detection of supply chains for illicit opioid drugs. The research will lead to models that describe the movement of products through the supply chain, suggesting pinch points or critical pathways that could be used to shut down distribution of the illicit products.

Through the partnership between an analytical chemist and an operations researcher, this project will allow for timely collection and analysis of post-market pharmaceutical samples to detect a wide range of illegal practices and harmful medicines or drugs drugs. The PAD gives fast but imperfect data via the cell phone network; from an operations engineering perspective, the system offers new opportunities to dynamically retarget sample collection, optimize logistics of confirmatory analysis and interactions with regulatory authorities, and model how illicit products enter the pharmaceutical supply chain. The project will test these strategies in real-world settings. Samples of essential medicines will be collected by covert shoppers in Kenya, Malawi, and Bangladesh, and tested with PADs. Integrating methods from operations engineering, the project will test approaches for detecting active ingredients and fillers, determine the incremental value of different types of samples for understanding the supply chains of falsified medications, and examine innovative sampling methods that respond dynamically to early reports of bad quality products. The research will lead to models that describe the movement of the products through the supply chain. Students involved in this project will test samples of street drugs in a police drug lab and classify them into batches according to active ingredient and filler content, with the goal of deducing how many producers are active in the supply chains for these illegal products.

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.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is to create a functional prototype system for presumptive detection of illicit opioids and stimulants. This new technology could prevent some of the 45,000 fatal opioid overdoses per year in the US and reduce the chances of false drug arrests, which disproportionately affect certain minority populations. The technology uses a mobile phone app coupled with a paper test card and machine vision algorithms. The paper card runs twelve chemical tests on the sample at once, producing a color bar code that reveals the chemical composition of the sample. The mobile app will use machine vision software to read the results of the test. The system will be less likely to erroneously identify a harmless substance as an illicit drug than current commercially available presumptive drug tests and may be able to measure drug concentrations and identify multiple drugs present in mixtures. The latter are capabilities that the current presumptive tests do poorly, if at all.

The proposed project will develop a prototype illicit drug identification system for further commercial development. The paper card will be accessorized with a dose metering device and solvent reservoir to facilitate field use. The number of color tests on the millifluidic card will be increased by 50%, targeting opioids and stimulant drugs. Human ability to sense colors is subjective and may be affected by differences in color vision, so the analytical metrics of reading test card results ?by eye? will be compared with the results of using principal component analysis, a neural network classification approach, or a generative adversarial network (GAN) approach. Harmless stimulant drugs will be used in field tests to evaluate different prototype card designs, and to demonstrate the potential of the mobile app + card system for geotemporal detection of a ?product? responsible for an overdose outbreak. The team will use a business model canvas framework and regular group meetings to ensure that all participants receive training in entrepreneurship and that the research and development activities result in a commercializable system for detecting illicit drugs in field settings.

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.

Even in communities where lead (Pb) exposure pathways are well understood, there are significant barriers to getting resources to the most affected individuals. These disparities in access to healthcare lead to a generational disadvantage as the households that face lead poisoning are disproportionately composed of racial minorities that live in low-income neighborhoods. This CIVIC research is at the intersection of community-based research and technology-driven frameworks. The goal of this research is to understand how to close communication gaps among households, healthcare providers, and policymakers. This has the potential to increase access to in-time health care, and enables quick and aggressive interventions via an app to be developed to tie all relevant parties together to improve the coordination of care to prevent child lead poisoning. The initial target community is St. Joseph County, Indiana. The research engages all relevant stakeholders in the process of lead poisoning diagnosis, intervention, and remediation/abatement. Broader impacts of the work include better health outcomes and less lead poisoning in children from low-income neighborhoods as well as engagement and training of engineering and chemistry undergraduate students. Students will be involved in developing accessible educational materials to inform households about the risks of lead exposure, especially in children, with the goal of helping community members identify and pursue lead assessment/abatement resources to protect the health of their loved ones. Student teams involved in the Stage 1 and follow-on Stage 2 program, if funded, will receive experiential learning opportunities and work with communities to translate community challenges into problem statements and help with the implementation of possible solutions. Research findings and developed technologies and informational materials will be scalable to other localities in the US and elsewhere with high soil and home lead concentrations.<br/><br/>Although Community-Based Participatory Research encourages multidisciplinary case review teams to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, an understanding of the relationship between individual, community, provider, and system factors is presently underexplored. This prevents the critical insight necessary to create risk reduction strategies, improve clinical pathways, and eliminate barriers to care. Through the CIVIC Stage 1 planning period, an interdisciplinary and multi stakeholder group of community members, health providers, researchers, and policymakers will be convened to understand the targeted community and the overlapping roles and responsibilities that each group has in closing the loop of lead detection in children and connecting households to resources that provide abatement interventions. These design thinking sessions and discussions will inform a framework for deploying community health workers, who work directly with impacted communities, and provide informational and technological solutions in the form of an app which will be co-designed by the community and university researchers as part of the pilot project. In the following Stage 2 project, the app and identified solutions will be deployed and evaluated alongside the performance of a previously developed, low-cost, lead, screening kit through a pilot program. The techno-sociological framework will enable a greater understanding about if and how the voices of marginalized patients are being heard, understood, and acted upon. <br/><br/>This project is in response to the Civic Innovation Challenge program—Track B. Bridging the gap between essential resources and services & community needs—and is a collaboration between NSF, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy.<br/><br/>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.