SGER: Excitable Vesicles - A New Platform

“SGER：可兴奋的小泡--一个新平台”电势和电流是细胞交流和处理信息的基本物理属性。因此，它们有助于控制许多生理过程，包括心脏跳动、运动和大脑功能。利用纳米技术，研究人员打算设计生物/非生物混合囊泡，模拟与许多活细胞相关的电压和电流的产生。本项目的目的是利用蛋白质技术和人造膜工程来创造一种新的功能装置--兴奋性囊泡(EV)。该设备将是一种新型本质智能材料的第一个化身，在这种材料的“智能”中，材料的“智能”来自于由材料的分子组成和结构产生的超分子相互作用。这个多学科项目是美国国家科学基金会探索性研究小额助学金(SGER)项目的理想选择。它提供了基础科学和工程学方面的重大进步，并提供了产生深远技术影响的机会。这个项目将把一些不同的生物离子通道结合到由合成的仿生共聚物形成的囊泡膜中，以创造一种新的、本质上具有活性的材料，这种材料是电自激发的。通过在分子水平上模拟信息在生命系统中的处理方式，预计电动汽车系统将为研究与大型电活动细胞复合体相关的紧急高阶行为的起源建立一个平台。这些系统将首次展示内在的信息处理，这是其基本材料特性的构成要素。它将产生一种探索物理系统中新出现的复杂性的平台技术，并为实现能够创造新的创造性技术的长期愿景提供场所，例如制造人工神经桥、心脏起搏系统的工程化修复以及构建三维模拟生物处理器。这项技术将为创造“环境意识”的材料奠定基础，这种材料随机地处理来自周围环境的信息，并以复杂的方式对信息做出反应。最初的重点将是证明电动汽车技术的基本原理，包括动作电位的产生、电动汽车的复极化和信号在小泡之间的传播。该项目将通过对电动汽车行为的计算机模拟来促进，并可能以演示电动汽车可以自发去极化而达到高潮。这些任务在建立生产大规模、集成的生物/非生物可兴奋囊泡复合体的平台技术方面相互支持。该项目得到了化学和运输系统1414和1415计划的支持，以及NSF纳米技术协调员的特别账户。

"SGER: Excitable Vesicles - A New Platform"Electric potential and current are fundamental physical properties through which cells communicate and process information. As such, they are instrumental in controlling many physiological processes, including the beating of the heart, locomotion, and brain function. Using nanotechnology, the investigator intends to engineer hybrid biotic/abiotic vesicles that mimic the production of voltages and currents associated with many living cells. It the intention of this project to use protein technology and artificial membrane engineering to create a new functional device, the Excitable Vesicle (EV). This device will be the first incarnation of a new class of intrinsically smart materials where the "intelligence" of the material emerges out of designed supra molecular interactions resulting from the molecular composition and structure of the material. This multidisciplinary project is ideal for the NSF Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) program. It provides significant advances in the basic science and engineering and offers an opportunity for far reaching technological impacts. This project will incorporate a number of different biological ion channels into membranes of vesicles formed from synthetic biomimetic copolymers to create a new, intrinsically active material that is electrically self-exciting. By mimicking how information is processed in living systems at the molecular level, it is anticipated that systems of EV's will establish a platform for investigating the genesis of emergent higher order behavior associated with large complexes of electrically active cells. These systems will for the first time demonstrate intrinsic information processing which is a constitutive element of its fundamental material properties. It will produce a platform technology for exploring emergent complexity in a physical system and provides a venue for realizing a long term vision of enabling the creation of new, inventive technologies, such as the fabrication of artificial neural bridges, engineered repair of the cardiac pacemaking system, and the construction of a 3-dimensional, analog bioprocessor. This technology will establish the foundation for creating materials that are "environmentally aware", materials that stochastically process information from its surrounding environment and respond to the information in a complex manner. Initially the focus will be on proving the fundamentals of EV technology generation of action potential, repolarization of EV's, and propagation of signals between vesicles. The project will be facilitated by computer simulations of EV behavior and will likely culminate with the demonstration of EV's that can spontaneously depolarize. These tasks support each other in establishing a platform technology for producing large-scale, integrated complexes of biotic/abiotic Excitable Vesicles. The project is supported by the Chemical and Transport Systems 1414 and 1415 programs, as well as the special accounts of the NSF Nanotechnology Coordinator.