10/23/2024
By Brooke Coupal

Balanced pH levels are essential for staying healthy.

pH (which stands for potential of hydrogen) is a measure of the acidity of a fluid, such as blood or sweat. High or low pH levels can indicate health problems, including muscle fatigue, kidney failure and cancer.

Chemistry Asst. Prof. Michael Ross and Prof. Matthew Gage are combining their areas of expertise for research that could help people detect changes in their pH level.

“It’s an interesting collaboration, because we come from very different fields,” says Gage, whose research focuses on muscle proteins. Ross, on the other hand, studies metal nanoparticles.

Funded by a $450,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Ross and Gage are looking to combine intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), or proteins that do not have a regular structure, with gold nanoparticles to be used in pH sensors.

“This study is innovative, as it represents one of the first approaches to coupling IDPs to nanoparticles,” Ross says. “This is a critical first step toward developing new IDP-nanoparticle sensors.”

Gold nanoparticles are ruby-red in color, but turn purple when the nanoparticles bunch together. The researchers plan to bind pH-sensitive IDPs to the surface of the nanoparticles and design it so that a change in color signifies a change in pH. This is similar to pregnancy or COVID-19 tests, which also use gold nanoparticles to indicate positive results.

Image by Brooke Coupal

The researchers envision their invention ultimately being incorporated into technologies like Fitbit, which uses real-time sensors to monitor health and track fitness. Through a drop of sweat, their IDP-nanoparticle sensor could measure a person’s pH level.

“It would change color as your pH dropped,” says Ross, who adds that the technology could then alert a person to drink water or electrolytes to recover.

Biochemistry junior Mary Harutyunyan is one of several students assisting with the research project. In the lab, she is using high-end instrumentation to analyze and create peptides – chains of amino acids that make up IDPs.

“My favorite thing that I’ve learned so far was using the peptide synthesizer, because there’s a lot of chemistry involved,” Harutyunyan says. “I love it.”

Julianne Gath ’24 started working on the research project while an undergraduate student after it received initial funding through a $15,000 seed grant from UMass Lowell’s Office of Research and Innovation. Wanting to continue with the research, Gath decided to pursue a master’s degree in biochemistry.

“I really want to do as much as I can with this research,” she says. “It’s like my baby. I want to see it grow.”

Through the NIH grant, the students receive a stipend for their work. The grant also supports their training on the instruments.

“The students are getting hands-on experience that is going to make them very employable when they graduate,” Gage says. “We’re here to help build the next generation of scientists.”