Presidential Young Investigator Award

这项研究涉及利用生物降解性， 手性和空间秩序的生物聚合物的建设 重要的新材料。 细菌聚酯纤维素 和溶菌酶已被选定为这项工作。 聚（羟基丁酸酯-羟基戊酸酯），PHBV，衍生自 细菌发酵被用于获得 具有相同的组成但在晶格中不同 结构、结晶完整性、球晶尺寸和百分比 结晶度 细菌聚酯的合成类似物是 通过进行开环聚合来合成， 对映体纯的N-烷基内酯。 PHBV正在被混合 与其他聚合物形成不同的形态。 的 然后将研究这些样品的微生物降解性 使用可变的生物环境。 这样，根本 聚合物结构、形态和 将建立可降解性。 纤维素衍生物将用于形成液晶 聚合物材料，其中， 对外界信号敏感。 通过合成纤维素 具有光响应和电响应基团的衍生物 沿着链条沿着连接在受控位置，关系 聚合物设计、施加的外部信号和 将确定材料的旋光性质。 这一概念将扩展到其他手性生物聚合物为基础的 系统，以探索链动力学对响应的影响 时间 插入光和电响应基团在选择性 蛋白质溶菌酶的位点将用于启动研究 酶构象的调节，因此 活动 这项工作的目标是探索方法， 允许酶基本上响应于 改变蛋白质空间排列的外部信号 催化位点 这些蛋白质可能提供新的途径， 光和电信号的传输。

This research involves exploiting the biodegradability, chirality, and spatial order of biopolymers for the construction of important new materials. The bacterial polyesters, cellulose, and lysozyme have been selected for this work. Poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate), PHBV, derived from bacterial fermentation is being used to obtain materials which have identical compositions but differ in the crystalline lattice structure, crystalline perfection, spherulite size, and percent crystallinity. Synthetic analogues of bacterial polyesters are being synthesized by carrying out a ring-opening polymerization of enantiomerically pure n-alkyl lactones. PHBV is being blended with other polymers to develop different morphologies. The microbial degradability of these samples will then be studied using variable biological environments. In this way, fundamental relationships between polymer structure, morphology, and degradability will be established. Cellulose derivatives will be used to form liquid crystalline polymeric materials where the cholesteric pitch will be highly sensitive to external signals. By synthesizing cellulose derivatives which have photo- and electroresponsive groups attached at controlled sites along the chain, relationships between polymer design, the aplied external signal, and the optical rotatory properties of the material will be established. This concept will be extended to other chiral biopolymer based systems to explore the effects of chain dynamics on response time. The insertion of photo- and electroresponsive groups at selective sites of the protein lysozyme will be used to initiate research into the modulation of enzyme conformation, and therefore activity. The goal of this work is to explore methods which allow enzymes to essentially be turned on and off in response to external signals which alter the spatial arrangements at protein catalytic sites. These proteins may provide novel routes for the transmission of light and electrical signals.