NIRT: Hierarchical Bionanomanufacturing

这个纳米级跨学科研究团队(NIRT)项目的目标是开发分级制造工艺，以便在纳米分辨率的表面上并行制造生物分子和聚合物组件，并通过外部信号触发它们的功能。将这些软生物材料以纳米级的精度沉积在工程材料的表面上，并进行外部触发控制，将为开展生物科学的基础研究、开发用于医疗应用的新型诊断传感设备和推进药物发现提供前所未有的机会。该项目的研究将遵循两条平行但互补的研究道路。第一条途径将重点放在具有化学特征的图案化表面上，以纳米级的精度将蛋白质和金属纳米结构定位在表面上，并开发所需的工程硬件和软件工具，以外部信号触发这些图案化组件的活动，创建活性纳米结构。第二条研究路线将侧重于开发大规模并行的表面图案化工艺，以通过冲压实现纳米级特征的高通量制造。推进生物异常制造的最大障碍是开发与水兼容的纳米制造工艺，使其能够在不需要洁净室的情况下进行大规模生产，并且是生物兼容的。该项目的活动通过整合和开发现有的和新的工具来解决这一问题，以实现与生物技术行业直接相关的分级制造。具体地说，将开发新的创新制造工具和战略，用于在纳米尺度上整合自然界的软湿CE材料和工程上的硬干材料。这一高度多学科的研究工作利用生物科学、化学、材料科学和工程方面的专业知识来制造与生物技术行业自动化功能相关的层次化生物结构。

The objective of this Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT) project is to develop hierarchical manufacturing processes for parallel fabrication of biomolecular and polymer components on surfaces with nanometer resolution and to trigger their function by external signals. Deposition of these soft biological materials on surfaces of engineered materials with nanoscale precision and their externally triggered control will afford unprecedented opportunities to conduct basic research in the biological sciences, develop new diagnostic sensing devices for medical applications, and advance drug discovery. Research in this project will pursue two parallel, but complementary research pathways. The first path will focus on patterning surfaces with chemical features to position proteins and metal nanostructures on the surface with nanoscale precision and to develop the engineering hardware and software tools required to trigger the activity of these patterned components with an external signal, creating active nanostructures. The second research path will focus on the development of a massively parallel implementation of the surface patterning process to enable high-throughput manufacturing of nanoscale features through stamping. The largest hurdle in the advancement of bionanomanufacturing is the development of nanofabrication processes that are compatible with water, enable mass production without the need for a clean-room, and are biocompatible. This project's activities address this issue through the integration and development of existing and new tools to enable hierarchical manufacturing that is directly relevant to the biotechnology industry. Specifically, new, innovative fabrication tools and strategies for the integration of nature's soft-wetCE materials and engineering's hard-dryCE materials at the nanoscale will be developed. This highly multidisciplinary research effort draws upon expertise in the biological sciences, chemistry, materials science, and engineering to fabricate hierarchical bionanostructures with functional relevance to automation of the biotechnology industry.