Implementation of diagnostic devices in high pressure industrial equipments

The technological challenges for developing diagnostic devices in large volume pressure chambers are of outstanding interest due to industrial needs and important demand of an in situ control of biological processes. Its relevance in biological and food science pressure treatments, and thus the potential transfer of technology through patents and external contracts, makes this project of high priority for technological applications. Specific points to develop in MALTA are:
      Electrochemical measurement devices. The knowledge of in situ electrochemical parameters as the pH is crucial for an adequate characterization of the pressure treatment in biological organisms. Biological processes are strongly mediated by the pH of the hydrostatic medium and its control becomes crucial in our research.
      Optical/spectroscopic probes. Spectroscopic measurements will be firstly conducted in diamond anvil cells to check the suitability of optical techniques in biological processes. The technique will be adapted later on to optical-fibre operation in order to install the spectroscopic probe inside the pressure chamber. Implementation of spectroscopic techniques will be useful to characterise several pressure-related processes. Specific application examples are:
           • Increasing oxidation can be determined through the conjugated dienes by the variation of the absorbance at 234 nm.
           • Protein conformational changes are important in bioscience studies under pressure. A spectrofluorometric approach can be used to estimate surface hydrophobicity of proteins and its modification with pressure.
           • Fluorescence can be used as probe for interaction with hydrophobic sites of proteins
           • Photon correlation spectroscopy or laser diffraction are ideal techniques for particle-size determination, and optical cells can be suited to measure the effect of micelle aggregation phenomena as a function of the particle size.