NIRT: Hierarchical Bionanomanufacturing

这个纳米级跨学科研究小组（NIRT）项目的目标是开发分层制造工艺，用于在具有纳米分辨率的表面上平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。将这些柔软的生物材料以纳米级的精度沉积在工程材料的表面上，并对其进行外部触发控制，将为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。 本项目的研究将采用两种平行但互补的研究途径。 第一条路径将专注于图案化具有化学特征的表面，以纳米级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，以通过外部信号触发这些图案化组件的活性，从而创建活性纳米结构。 第二条研究路径将专注于开发表面图案化过程的大规模并行实施，以通过冲压实现纳米级特征的高吞吐量制造。 生物纳米制造进步的最大障碍是开发与水相容的纳米纤维工艺，使大规模生产不需要洁净室，并且具有生物相容性。 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，以实现与生物技术工业直接相关的分级制造。具体而言，将开发新的创新制造工具和策略，用于在纳米级上整合自然界的软湿CE材料和工程学上的硬干CE材料。这种高度多学科的研究工作借鉴了生物科学，化学，材料科学和工程方面的专业知识，以制造与生物技术行业自动化功能相关的分层生物纳米结构。

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.