Conformationally Controllable Amphiphiles and Their Applications in Sensor Design

在有机化学和高分子化学项目的支持下，赵燕教授将探索构象控制，这是生物学的核心。许多蛋白质受体和酶的结合和催化功能是通过它们受控的构象变化来调节的。因此，能够指导有机分子的构象行为对于基础化学和应用化学以及生物学都是非常重要的。这项研究的重点是利用生物灵感利用疏水作用来控制两亲性折叠体的构象。总体目标是合成具有良好控制折叠/去折叠行为的两亲性折叠分子，并展示其作为一类新型分子传感器的应用。所建议的折叠剂可以由容易获得的材料合成。它们具有非常特殊的性质，包括大的(1 Nm)亲水性内腔，内部官能团的分布可控，纳米尺寸，以及可调的构象稳定性。本申请中提出的折叠体将被转化为传感器，可以检测金属离子、温度变化或小分子分析物。这项拟议的研究预计将在化学和制药行业产生几个广泛的影响。例如，所提出的分子传感器可能用于检测分子物种，包括药物或药物代谢物，或环境应用中的重金属。此外，拟议的仿生化学为参与研究的研究生和本科生提供了极好的培训。学生将发展设计模拟生物分子的合成结构的重要技能。由于拟议工作的跨学科性质，他们还将接触到广泛的研究领域。

With the support of this award from the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program Professor Yan Zhao will explore conformational control, which is at the heart of biology. The binding and catalytic functions of many protein receptors and enzymes are regulated through their controlled conformational changes. Therefore, being able to guide the conformational behavior of organic molecules is highly important to both fundamental and applied chemistry and biology. This research focuses on the bioinspired utilization of solvophobic interactions for conformational control of amphiphilic foldamers. The overall objective is to synthesize amphiphilic foldamers with well controlled folding/unfolding behavior and demonstrate their applications as a novel class of molecular sensors. The proposed foldamers can be synthesized from readily available materials. They have highly unusual properties including large ( 1 nm) hydrophilic internal cavity, controllable distribution of internal functional groups, nanometer-sized dimension, and tunable conformational stability. The foldamers proposed in this application will be converted into sensors that can detect metal ions, temperature changes, or small-molecule analytes. The proposed research is expected to have several broad impacts in chemical and pharmaceutical industries. For example, the proposed molecular sensors potentially can be used to detect molecular species including drug or drug metabolites, or heavy metals in environmental applications. In addition, the proposed biomimetic chemistry provides excellent trainings to graduate and undergraduate students involved in the research. Students will develop important skills in designing synthetic structures to mimic biological molecules. They will also be exposed to a wide range of research fields due to the interdisciplinary nature of the proposed work.