Inverted Colloidal Crystal Membranes

摘要提案编号：CBET-0651231主要开发者：斯科特·胡森（Scott Husson）隶属于：克莱门森大学（CLEMSON UNIVERSITYPROPOSAL TITLE）：倒置胶体晶体膜（INVERTED COLLOIDAL CRYSTAL membrane）克莱姆森大学和科罗拉多州立大学的一个研究小组将通过合成和表征、分子建模和实验验证开发用于蛋白质分离的倒置胶体晶体（ICC）膜。目的是利用ICC材料的高度均匀和可控的孔径、完全互连的孔和大的空隙体积用于高速、高效的色谱生物分离。虽然ICC膜的结构特性将在合成过程中得到控制，但PI将使用合成后表面改性工具来定制ICC膜的化学性质。分子建模将在设计过程中发挥关键作用，提供了一个工具，用于研究表面改性onmembrane电荷状态的影响，并确定优化的操作pH值条件下，在一个virtual environment.Intellectual Merit它仍然是一个重大挑战，创造高度多孔膜材料，具有精确控制的孔径和窄孔径分布。另一个挑战是通过建模来理解这种膜的物理化学性质如何影响其进行生物分离的性能。需要克服的挑战包括：设计、合成和表征高度有序的功能化ICC膜。使用ICC膜表征蛋白质的突破响应和分离因子。ICC膜特性和蛋白质穿透的建模和可视化由于ICC膜具有均匀可控的孔径和完全互连的周期性孔结构，它们将在膜色谱中找到许多应用。ICC膜也可以代表新一代的微滤和超滤膜，用于生物分离和生物医学分离。该计划将涉及一个本科生团队作为本科生创造性探究（UCI）计划的一部分。UCI计划的目标是教育学生科学研究的方法，促进推理，道德判断和有效的沟通技巧。UCI的研究人员将参与台式和建模项目，并将接受计算机建模，膜合成和蛋白质分离的基础知识培训。 推广活动的目标是通过针对中学生和中学数学和科学教育工作者的现有方案，将实验和模拟作为教学工具。通过Paws for Polymers外展计划，我们将向1-2名每月来校园1-2次的西班牙裔中学生教授工程和科学概念。为期一周的夏令营计划将作为夏季科学，工程和建筑系列的一部分。选定的夏令营活动将以类似的形式用于WISE项目，这是一个为8年级女生提供的为期一周的住宿夏令营，以及Sneak-A-Peek，这是一个为计划主修工程、数学或科学的大一女生提供的为期一周的夏令营。 这项研究对蛋白质组学研究具有潜在的意义。将蛋白质组分离成其组分是一项重大的研究挑战，必须满足以确定蛋白质及其功能，最终目标是诊断和治疗疾病。开发的ICC膜将导致高效的蛋白质分离，其生产率高于目前使用的色谱方法，这是由于其高度均匀的三维结构。

AbstractPROPOSAL NUMBER: CBET-0651231PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: SCOTT HUSSONAFFILIATION: CLEMSON UNIVERSITYPROPOSAL TITLE: INVERTED COLLOIDAL CRYSTAL MEMBRANESA team of Clemson University and Colorado State University faculty will develop inverted colloidal crystal (ICC) membranes for protein separations through the synthesis and haracterization, molecular modeling, and experimental validation. An aim is to take advantage of the highly uniform and controllable pore size, fully interconnected pores, and large void volume of ICC materials for high speed, high efficiency chromatographic bioseparations. While the structural properties of the ICC membranes will be controlled during synthesis, the PIs will use post-synthesis surface modification tools to tailor the chemistry of the ICC membranes. Molecular modeling will play a critical role in the design process, providing a tool for studying the influence of the surface modifications onmembrane charge state, and identifying optimized operating pH conditions in a virtual environment.Intellectual Merit It remains a major challenge to create highly porous membrane materials that have precisely controlled pore sizes and narrow pore-size distributions. Another challenge is to understand through modeling how the physicochemical properties of such a membrane would affect its performance to carry out biological separations. Challenges to overcome include: . Designing, synthesizing, and characterizing highly ordered, functionalized ICC membranes. Characterizing the breakthrough response and separation factors for proteins using ICC membranes. Modeling and visualizing ICC membrane properties and protein breakthrough.Since ICC membranes have uniform and controllable pore size and a fully interconnected, periodic pore structure, they will find numerous applications in membrane chromatography. ICC membranes could also represent a new generation of microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes for bioseparations and biomedical separations.Broader Impacts. The program will involve a team of undergraduates as part ofthe Undergraduate Creative Inquiry (UCI) Program. The UCI program goals are to educate the students in the methods of scientific research and to promote reasoning, ethical judgment, and effective communication skills. UCI researchers will participate in both bench-top and modeling projects and will be trained in the fundamentals of computer modeling, membrane synthesis, and protein separation. The goal of the outreach activities is to incorporate experimentation and simulation as teaching tools through existing programs targeted at middle school students and middle school math and science educators. Through the Paws for Polymers outreach program, we will teach engineering and science concepts to twelve Hispanic middle school students who come to campus 1-2 times per month. A week-long summer camp program for these students will be conducted as part of the Summer Science, Engineering and Architecture series. Selected camp activities will be used in a similar format for Project WISE, a 1-week residential camp for rising 8th grade girls, and Sneak-A-Peek, a 1-week camp for incoming female freshmen who plan on majoring in engineering, math, or science. The proposed research has potential implications for proteomics research. Fractionating the proteome into its constituents is a major research challenge that must be met in order to identify proteins and their functions, with the ultimate goal of diagnosing and treating diseases. The ICC membranes that are developed will lead to highly efficient protein separations with higher productivity than currently used chromatographic methods, as a result of their highly uniform three-dimensional structures.