By Julianna Parker Jones
The Norman Transcript

University of Oklahoma researchers have created a new technology that makes it faster and cheaper to discover which microorganisms are functioning in a scientific sample.

The OU GeoChip cuts down the time it takes researchers to test samples of contaminated water, decaying soil or other substance.

The technology was recognized this week as one of the top 100 most outstanding technology developments of 2009 by R--D Magazine.

Since 1963, the R--D 100 Awards have identified new technologies with promising commercial potential that are recently introduced to the market. Previous standouts include the automated teller machine (1973), the fax machine (1975), the printer (1986), the Nicoderm antismoking patch (1992) and HDTV (1998).

The GeoChip was created through a collaboration of more than 50 researchers from many universities, including principal researcher Jizhong Zhou, Presidential Professor in OU's Department of Botany and Microbiology. He worked with OU project team members Zhili He, research scientist; Liyou Wu, research scientist; Joy D. Van Nostrand, post-doctoral fellow; and Ye Deng, post-doctoral fellow.

Zhou said he has been working on the GeoChip for 10 years. The development of GeoChip was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology.

The GeoChip honored by R--D Magazine is actually the fourth model to be produced, and Zhou said the team of researchers is constantly improving the product.

The OU GeoChip has been purchased by governmental and research bodies from around the world, he said. And this award will bring the product even more renown.

"It's very good because this is the most prestigious award in this field," Zhou said.
The GeoChip looks unassuming, but its implications are vast for the fields of biogeochemical, ecological and environmental science.

The GeoChip looks like an simple scientific slide, but it is treated with a chemical in order to attach genetic probes to the surface. There are about 27,000 probes on the surface of the slide, which identify more than 50,000 genes of microorganisms.

Scientists can use the GeoChip to test a microbial sample from any environmental source, such as soil, water, air and human and animal bodies, one of the researchers, He, said. The GeoChip allows them to test for all 50,000 genes at once, he said.

"We designed a universal, generic tool for many different systems," Zhou said.
Before the GeoChip was developed, researchers had to go through a laborious process of testing for individual genes in a sample if they didn't know exactly what they were looking for, he said.

"This tool is the only one in the world," Zhou said.

The GeoChip developers included in the product the probes that would detect genes involved in biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur and various metals, antibiotic resistance, metal resistance, organic contaminant degradation and energy production, according to the application for the award provided by Van Nostrand.

There are myriad uses for the GeoChip. One example Zhou gave is that it could be used for testing someone who has taken antibiotics. Testing a human sample with the GeoChip that had used antibiotics and from a human that had not would quickly show which bacteria were affected by the antibiotics and which were not.

That's important to know, Zhou said, because our bodies need bacteria to function properly. The GeoChip also could be used to test water that has been contaminated to see what microorganisms are present and what they are doing, Zhou said.

"This thing is a very super tool to tell the functional differences between the communities" of microorganisms, he said.

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