Evaporation Assisted Plasma Lithography for Biomimetic Proteins

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。自然界中的许多蛋白质，如丝绸和弹性蛋白，具有优越的物理性能。受这些蛋白质优越特性的启发，本项目的目标是研究一种蒸发辅助等离子体光刻工艺，用于组装仿生蛋白质结构。系统地研究控制装配过程的参数。组装的仿生蛋白质结构将通过不同的表征技术进行研究。本研究将为仿生蛋白的纳米制造提供一种新的方法，并为仿生蛋白在未来的工程和生物医学应用中发挥潜力奠定基础。这项研究将影响许多仿生蛋白质和纳米级构建模块的制造过程。仿生蛋白质的独特特性与创新的纳米制造技术相结合，将通过整合自下而上创建的构建模块和自上而下制造的微纳米平台，为创建混合微系统开辟新的可能性。所提出的过程将为在制造、生物工程和材料科学中具有广泛适用性的新型智能微设备奠定基础。此外，纳米结构引导制造的可视化特性可以提供吸引人的演示，以吸引不同群体的学生和公众。研究活动将整合到不同的教育和推广活动中，包括研究生和本科生课程、本科生研究经历、推广和少数民族项目。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Many proteins in nature, such as silk and elastin, have superior physical properties. Inspired by the superior properties of these proteins, the goal of this project is to investigate an Evaporation-Assisted Plasma Lithography process for assembling biomimetic protein structures. The parameters that control the assembly process will be studied systematically. The assembled biomimetic protein structures will be investigated by different characterization techniques. The proposed work will lead to a novel nanomanufacturing strategy for biomimetic proteins, and will provide the foundation for utilizing the potential of biomimetic proteins in numerous engineering and biomedical applications in the future. This study will impact the manufacturing processes of many biomimetic proteins and nanoscale building blocks. The combination of the unique characteristics of biomimetic proteins and the innovative nanomanufacturing technique will open up new possibilities in creating hybrid microsystems by integrating bottom-up created building blocks and top-down fabricated micro and nano platforms. The proposed process will form the foundation for a new class of smart microdevices with broad applicability in manufacturing, bioengineering, and materials science. In addition, the visualization nature of guided manufacturing of nanostructures could provide appealing demonstrations to interest a diverse group of students and the general public. The research activity will be integrated into different education and outreach activities including graduate and undergraduate courses, undergraduate research experiences, and outreach and minority programs.