NSF Award
2320241
An award is made to the University of New Hampshire (UNH) to acquire an Orbitrap Eclipse LC-MS system to (i) dramatically improve mass spectrometry (MS) capacity and expedite research projects in diverse fields, (ii) facilitate hands-on training and inquiry-based learning on modern instrumentation, and (iii) establish a regional high-resolution MS facility. Equipped with more current technologies, the proposed Eclipse LC-MS system will enable in-depth, conclusive proteomics analysis with desirable sensitivity and throughput. This new instrumentation will serve 26 research programs as major users from 11 departments and 3 colleges, bringing together a diverse group of researchers. The highly interdisciplinary nature of the collaborative projects will provide ample hands-on training opportunities for research scientists/post-docs, graduate students, and undergraduate students on cutting-edge MS technologies. In addition, a UNH summer MS workshop and a semester-long MS course will provide expanded research training for graduate and undergraduate students at UNH as well as at least 14 other colleges and universities in New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont, contributing to regional STEM education and workforce development. The student population at UNH is 55% female and 30% first-generation students. With a total population of just over 1.3 million, New Hampshire (NH) has a significant rural population. Research can be a life-changing experience for students, especially those from low-income demographics and rural areas. These students will have the opportunity to train with state-of-the-art instrumentation and realize their potential to pursue an advanced technical degree. Furthermore, as the UNH professional master’s programs in Molecular & Cellular Technology and Bioinformatic continue to grow, the requested Eclipse LC-MS system will make a significant impact in developing a future STEM workforce and supporting sustainable economic growth in the state of NH as well as the northern New England region. Results from involved research projects will also bring direct societal impacts in developing new energy sources and bioengineering materials, elucidating disease etiology and therapeutic targets, protecting environment and wildlife, reclaiming soil and natural resources, improving agriculture practice, and enhancing food and nutrition management.<br/><br/>The research that will be supported encompasses a broad range of biology, chemistry, ecology, and biomedical engineering-based projects at UNH and in northern New England. Essential biological insights will be generated from these projects towards mechanistic understanding of visual transduction, stem cell trans-differentiation and tissue engineering, interactions among microbes, plants and the environment, transcription regulation and chromatin structure, signal transduction in neuronal cilia and hematopoietic progenitors, epigenetic regulation and behavioral plasticity, protein folding and proteome homeostasis. High-quality MS data will elucidate key regulators, modifications, interactions, structure conformations, and signaling molecules and networks, which will revolutionize research programs and enables breakthroughs in understanding processes that would have otherwise been inaccessible. The requested instrumentation will also aid in the development of novel reagents in solar fuel production, as well as the design and development of enabling technologies and platforms of biosensor and femto-flow electrospray ionization sources. These impactful projects require MS instrumentation - equipped with current, modern technologies - as a critical research tool. Through active collaborations between UNH and regional biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, new knowledge and improved practice will emerge in manufacturing specialty ingredients used in personal and health care, in characterizing antimicrobial natural products, and in understanding host-microbe interactions and metabolomic responses towards environmental stressors. In summary, significant improvements in MS experimental capacities, sensitivity, and throughput over current UNH instrumentation will rapidly expand the application of MS and modern instrumentation into a variety of research disciplines at UNH and beyond.<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.
