Constraints and Frustration in Nano-Structured and Bio-Molecular Materials

纳米结构和生物分子材料的限制和挫折

• 批准号: 0820492
• 负责人: Seth Fraden
• 金额: $ 650万
• 依托单位: Brandeis University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-09-01 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0820492&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Constraints; Frustration; Nano; Structured; Bio

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at Brandeis University supports innovative research and education in an exciting subject at the interface between materials science and biology. The major research theme of the Center is to develop fundamental understanding of emergent properties of materials due to constraints similar to those occurring in biological systems, and in understanding the role of constraints in the structure and function of cells and cellular components. This is an interdisciplinary Center with twelve senior investigators from four departments at Brandeis University, and one each from Brown University and Olin College of Engineering. The MRSEC provides a multidisciplinary education for students in physics, chemistry and biology, that will contribute to the workforce at the research frontiers and to the needs of emerging biomaterials industries. Other educational programs include research experiences for undergraduates, and pre-college outreach through teacher training. The MRSEC offers a program targeted to inner-city minority science undergraduates at Brandeis. Scientists at the Center work with the Discovery Museums in Acton, MA, to develop interactive exhibits in the area of biological physics and materials science. The Center provides novel facilities for research in the emerging area of microfluidics and is collaborating with industry to develop microfluidics technologies. Research at the Center is organized as a single Interdisciplinary Research Group with three main thrusts that explore how the addition of constraints typically found in biology - confinement, crowding, and local forces that compete with and sometimes frustrate long range order - leads to emergent properties, in the realms of both structure and dynamics. The research thrusts are structure and dynamics of long polymer molecules, such as DNA, in tightly confined volumes; self-assembly of "chiral" or twisted molecules that lead to unusual structures; and "active matter" composed of organized assemblies of self-powered particles that move in space or oscillate in time.

布兰迪斯大学的材料研究科学与工程中心(MRSEC)支持在材料科学和生物学之间的一个令人兴奋的学科上的创新研究和教育。该中心的主要研究主题是发展对材料由于类似于生物系统中的约束而产生的特性的基本理解，以及理解约束在细胞和细胞组件的结构和功能中的作用。这是一个跨学科中心，有来自布兰迪斯大学四个系的十二名高级研究人员，布朗大学和奥林工程学院各一名。MRSEC为学生提供物理、化学和生物方面的多学科教育，这将为研究前沿的劳动力和新兴生物材料行业的需求做出贡献。其他教育计划包括为本科生提供研究经验，以及通过教师培训进行大学前推广。MRSEC提供了一个针对Brandeis市中心少数民族理科本科生的项目。该中心的科学家与马萨诸塞州阿克顿的发现博物馆合作，开发生物物理和材料科学领域的互动展品。该中心为新兴的微流控领域的研究提供了新的设施，并正在与业界合作开发微流控技术。该中心的研究被组织为一个单一的跨学科研究小组，有三个主要推动力，探索在生物学中常见的限制因素--限制、拥挤和与长期秩序竞争、有时甚至是受挫的局部力量--如何在结构和动力学领域导致新的性质。研究的重点是长聚合物分子的结构和动力学，如DNA，在紧密限制的体积中；导致不寻常结构的“手性”或扭曲分子的自组装；以及由在空间移动或在时间上振荡的自给能粒子的有组织的组装组成的“活性物质”。