Self-Organized Structures from Nanoparticles and Proteins

这个奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公共法律111-5)资助的。智力价值：由于这些基本生物构件的界面相互作用，蛋白质、DNA和病毒具有自组装成有序形态的能力。水溶性无机纳米颗粒(NPs)具有相似的尺寸和表面化学成分，因此，NP之间的相互作用也相似。事实上，它们也有自我组织的能力。在这里，我们将探索一个假设，即NPs和蛋白质可以形成具有新的形态和拓扑的杂化组装，这可能与蛋白质和NPs形成的组装有相似之处。除了在两类主要不同的大分子之间建立深刻的基本类比之外，这项工作的动机来自于需要找到方法来制作复杂的NP结构，在许多情况下模仿生物对应的结构。这种需求的一个典型例子是复制植物和细菌的光合作用中心，以实现太阳能转换。此外，设计可用作光子系统、传感器和微/纳米级浇注系统的介质响应型动态NP组件也将是一件有趣的事情。具体地说，在这个项目中，将使用CdTe纳米颗粒和细胞色素C(CytC)的组合。这两个组分都有很强的偶极矩，并且由于偶极-偶极相互作用可以潜在地自组装。这些产品可以是纳米线(NWS)、纳米片(NSS)、纳米螺旋(NHS)，也可能是其他超结构。一旦这些组件被很好地表征为生物分子的结合，整合蛋白的构象变化将被用来调整整体形态。本研究还将重点研究基于温度变化和pH效应作为两个主要控制参数的生物纳米复合材料形态结构的实验调节。将测试导致NP-蛋白质纳米复合材料从一维结构到二维和三维结构的可逆转变的条件。广泛的影响：研究工作将得到强大的扩展部分的补充。该项目将为学生提供一个充满活力和激励的环境，介绍最棘手的化学工程和界面科学问题。通过让学生在纳米技术的新应用开发中与工业研究人员互动，该提案的教育影响将得到加强。由于材料设计技术相对简单，以及将在提案中使用的复合材料的各个组件的化学安全性，我们计划让来自密歇根州的夏季高中生参与进来，从而传播纳米技术知识，并扩大研究的教育影响范围。密歇根大学以其大规模的多元化努力和在各个级别招收高素质的少数族裔学生而闻名。这项提案通过校园和全州范围的计划整合了这些努力，并将让少数民族和性别少数人参与到该项目中。类似于NPs大小的不同蛋白质结构和不同长度的DNA分子也将被用于类似的研究。无机材料与DNA的组装也将被类似地开发和表征，以研究可逆形态的机制。通过提高对生物纳米复合材料形成的理解和对先进组件的进一步改变，将提供与现有方法相比具有更高控制性的新结构设计的机会。用这种方法以可逆的方式实现有序结构也将为设计特定的电子、传感和诊断应用的材料开辟一条新的途径。

0932823Kotov"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."Intellectual Merit:Proteins, DNAs and viruses have the capability to self-assemble into ordered morphologies due to interfacial interactions of these basic biological building blocks. Water-soluble inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) have similar dimensions, chemistries on their surface, and, hence, analogous inter-NP interactions. Indeed, they also have the ability to self-organize. Here, we will explore a hypothesis that NPs and proteins can form hybrid assemblies with new morphologies and topologies, which probably have similarities with those made by proteins and those made by NPs. Besides establishing profound fundamental analogy between two principally different classes of macromolecules, the motivation for this work comes from the need to find methods to make complex NP structures in many instances mimicking the biological counterparts. One characteristic example for this need is the replication of the photosynthetic center of plants and bacteria for solar energy conversion. As well, it will also be interesting to design media-responsive dynamic NP assemblies that can serve as photonic systems, sensors, and micro/nano scale gating systems. Specifically, in this project, the combination of CdTe NPs and Cytochrome C (Cyt C) will be used. Both of the components have strong dipole moments and can potentially self-assemble due to dipole-dipole interaction. The products can be nanowires (NWs), nanosheets (NSs), nanohelixes (NHs) and possibly other superstructures. Once the assemblies are well-characterized for the incorporation of biomolecules, the conformational change of the integrated proteins will be used to tune the overall morphology. The study will also focus on the experimental modulation of the morphological structures of the bio-nanocomposites based upon temperature change and pH effect as two primary control parameters. Conditions leading to reversible transformations of the NP-protein nanocomposite from 1D to 2D and 3D structures will be tested.Broader Impact:The research effort will be complemented by the strong outreach component. The project will provide an energetic and stimulating environment for students with introduction to the toughest problems of chemical engineering and interfacial science. The educational impact of the proposal will be enhanced by the possibility for students to interact with industrial researchers in the development of new applications of nanotechnology. Due to the relative simplicity of materials design techniques as well as chemical safety of the individual components of the composites to be used in the proposal, we plan to involve summer high school students from Michigan thereby disseminating the knowledge on nanotechnology and expanding the breadth of educational impact of the research. University of Michigan is well known for its large-scale diversity effort and recruitment of highly qualified minority students at all levels. This proposal integrates these efforts through campus- and state-wide programs and will have both ethnic and gender minorities immersed in the project. Different protein structure similar to size of NPs and DNA molecules in various lengths will be also employed for similar studies. The assemblies of inorganic materials with DNA will be similarly exploited and characterized for the mechanism of reversible morphologies. By improving the understanding for the bio-nanocomposite formation and further alteration of advanced assemblies will offer the opportunity to design new architectures with higher control compared to the current methods available. Achieving ordered structures by this method in a reversible fashion will also open a new route for designing materials for specific electronic, sensing and diagnostic application.