Porous Multi-Functional Interfaces for Controlling Biofoulings

由于蛋白质或微生物生物膜在表面附着造成的生物污垢是一个普遍存在的问题，在工业上耗资数百万美元，也是许多细菌相关疾病的根源。这笔赠款提供资金，用于开发新的表面化学物质和多孔界面，以防止蛋白质的吸附、哺乳动物细胞的粘连和生物膜的形成，从而控制不同表面的生物污垢。基于一种新的理论，该项目能够使用Kosmotrope，它保持了蛋白质的天然结构，以防止蛋白质在表面吸附和生物污垢。由于生物膜的形成在二维和垂直方向上进行，因此设计了一层多孔水凝胶层，以解决生物膜形成的三维性质。这种多孔水凝胶是由水包水乳液和药物构建而成的，这种乳液使酶能够降解生物膜的结构，药物可以抑制细菌形成群落(群体感应)，这是形成生物膜的先决条件。在有机合成新材料的推动下，这项拟议的研究将破译生物污垢问题中的每一个问题：表面修饰的立体化学如何影响蛋白质的吸附，三维多孔界面结构如何影响生物膜的形成，以及如何将酶和药物功能结合到结构中以控制生物污垢。该项目完成后，将有助于更统一地理解生物污垢的化学，包括生物膜的三维性质，并可能为医疗和工业应用提供控制生物污垢的一般方法。

Biofouling due to the attachment of proteins or microbial biofilms on surfaces is a ubiquitous problem that costs millions of dollars worthy of damages in industry and is the origin for many bacteria-associated diseases. This grant provides funding for the development of new surface chemistries and porous interfaces that can prevent the adsorption of proteins, adhesion of mammalian cells and the formation of biofilms, and thus can control the biofouling on different surfaces. Based on a new theory, this project enables the use of kosmotropes, which maintain the native structure of proteins, to prevent protein adsorption and biofouling on surfaces. Because the formation of biofilm progresses in two dimensions and in the vertical direction, a porous layer of hydrogel is designed to also address the three-dimensional nature of biofilm formation. This porous hydrogel is built by a recent development of water-in-water emulsion, which enables the use of enzymes to degrade the structure of biofilm, and drugs to inhibit the bacteria from forming a community (quorum sensing) that is the prerequisite for forming the biofilms. Enabled by organic synthesis of new materials, the proposed research will decipher each of the multitudes in the biofouling problem: how the stereochemistry of the surface modification can influence protein adsorption, how a three-dimensional porous interfacial structure affects the formation of biofilm, and how to incorporate enzymatic and drug functions into structures to control biofoulings. When completed, this project will contribute to a more unifying understanding of the chemistry of biofouling including the three-dimensional nature of biofilms, and provide potentially general methods to control biofouling for both medical and industrial applications.