Equipment: MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of a MALDI-TOF/FTIR System to Support Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences in Biological and Computational Sciences at an HSI

An award is made to the University of Houston – Clear Lake (UHCL), a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), to obtain an integrated matrix-assisted laser desorption – time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-ToF MS) / Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIRspec) system. This award will establish a user-laboratory shared by UHCL, the Lunar Planetary Institute, Texas Tech University and several other institutions in the region, including the NASA Johnson Space Center, Texas Southern University (a Historically Black University) and the University of Houston-Downtown (a HSI).

To align methods between users, a virtual lab simulation of sample preparation protocols will be refined. The primary users will be undergraduates in course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). Students’ projects will include identifying antibiotic-resistant bacteria and tracking the source of fecal contamination in estuarine systems, identifying bacteria that can improve the yield and sustainability of row agriculture and identifying bacteria found in NASA facilities and spacecraft.

Participation in these CUREs will improve outcomes for hundreds of students, from groups who have been traditionally underrepresented in science, by engaging them in authentic research early in their degree plan. Mass spectra students and researchers generate will be shared through a dedicated server to provide a resource to the scientific community.

Cultivation of many bacteria that have been previously considered unculturable appears possible with novel strategies; however, evaluation of these approaches depends on comparisons of dozens of libraries with hundreds of isolates in each library. Systematic comparisons of libraries with sequencing-dependent techniques, like 16S rRNA gene sequencing, is prohibitively expensive.

Given these challenges, host-associated microbiomes, and microbial communities in general, remain poorly described “black boxes,” with few representative isolates. MALDI-ToF systems enable users to process thousands of isolates a week for pennies per isolate. This high throughput proteomics method can readily differentiate species of bacteria and, when coupled to a deep database of mass spectra, will accelerate the discovery of bacteria with beneficial traits, like plant growth promotion.

Integration of FTIRspec increases the resolution of the system to a level comparable to whole genome sequencing. This will facilitate identifying the source of microbial contamination of built and natural systems.

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.