CBEE Seminar: Trevor Glaros, Ph.D.

Abstract

The United States Army is widely recognized as the world's premier fighting force.  Presently, there are roughly 1.3 million active duty service members across all branches of the armed forces.  However, supporting these brave men and women, behind the scenes or sometimes shoulder to shoulder, are nearly 3.6 million federal civilians and defense contractors. For every one active duty service member there are nearly three non-uniform civilians or contractors supporting their mission. To those outside of the Department of Defense, it may seem like mass spectrometry is just a common research tool frequently employed at various institutes or universities throughout the world. However, this could not be further from the truth The U.S. military has been heavy invested in the miniaturization of these instruments, pushing this technology into the field for more than 40 years.  Over the past decade our craft has seen major advances in both hardware, analytics, and supporting systems.  More than ever before, the U.S. Army is heavily investing in the development of instrumentation as well as research programs which rely on this core technology.  The BioSciences Mass Spectrometry facility at the U.S. Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center focuses on utilizing mass spectrometers for forensic purposes and for understanding complex living systems, utilizing both proteomics and metabolomics.  In this seminar several ongoing research programs will be highlighted. Recently our laboratory has been heavily involved in exploring the application of paper spray mass spectrometry to various warfighter applications.  As part of this effort, we have demonstrated that this prepless ambient ionization technique is able to detect chemical warfare agents in a variety of complex backgrounds including blood, urine, and air.  This includes integrating and fielding the paper spray cartridge onto several different autonomous drones (ground and air).  In an effort to take this technology into the field we recently established a mini mass spec facility within the BioSciences Division at ECBC.  This new resource currently houses much of the state-of-the-art in miniaturized and man portable mass spectrometers which is available to the DoD and collaborators.  The laboratory is also involved in several biomarker discovery programs which collectively aim to identify a panel of protein or metabolite markers which can be leveraged for diagnosing exposure to various toxicants of military interest.  These markers are largely looked for in blood-derived fluids, but more recently we have explored dermal interstitial fluid as an alternative due to ease of sampling using painless microneedle patches.  In conclusion, the Army is a multifaceted organization that embraces science and technology, including mass spectrometry, to stay one step ahead of our adversaries.

After the Seminar, Join Dr. Glaros for a Coffee Break at 2pm in ENG314