Genetically Controlled Syntheses of New Polymeric Materials

一项基础广泛的研究计划，旨在将分子生物学的工具引入高分子材料科学。传统的聚合物合成化学方法受到聚合过程统计性质的固有限制，因此传统的聚合物材料由链的统计混合物组成。纯聚合物材料的制备，以及聚合物在需要精确控制分子和超分子结构的应用中的应用，只有通过引入新的合成方法才能实现。利用蛋白质生物合成的高保真度，再加上基因合成、克隆和表达的最新进展，将用于创造具有精确定义结构的新型聚合物材料。重点将放在两类聚合物-均多肽和重复共肽-被认为是材料科学的特殊兴趣。将进行以下工作：i)编码这些聚合物的人工基因的合成，ii)感兴趣的聚合物在细菌宿主中的表达，以及iii)产品的分子和超分子结构的详细分析。材料问题（例如，固体多肽的固态结构和链构象）和生物学问题（例如，遗传稳定性和表达水平）将在工作过程中解决。生物合成将由类似多肽的化学制备来补充，以便比较和对比这两种方法，并促进生物衍生产品的分离和结构表征。

A broadly based research program aimed at the introduction of the tools of molecular biology into polymer materials science will be carried out. Conventional chemical methods of polymer synthesis are inherently limited by the statistical nature of polymerization processes, and as a result conventional polymeric materials comprise statistical mixtures of chains. The preparation of pure polymeric materials, and the use of polymers in applications that require precise control of molecular and supramolecular structure, can be realized only through the introduction of new synthetic methods. The exploitation of the high fidelity of protein biosynthesis, coupled with recent advances in the synthesis, cloning and expression of genes, will be used to create new polymeric materials of precisely defined structure. The focus will be on two classes of polymers - homopolypeptides and repetitive copolypeptides - that are believed to be of special interest in materials science. The following will be carried out: i) the synthesis of artificial genes that encode such polymers,ii) expression in bacterial hosts of the polymers of interest, and iii) detailed analysis of the molecular and supramolecular structures of the products. Both materials issues (e.g., solid state structure and chain conformation in solid polypeptides) and biological questions (e.g., genetic stability and expression levels) will address in the course of the work. Biological syntheses will be complemented by chemical preparations of analogous polypeptides in order to compare and contrast the two approaches, and to facilitate isolation and structural characterization of the biologically-derived products.