Archaeal Tetraether Liposomes

这项由天普大学材料研究部生物材料项目授予坦普尔大学的奖项是为了支持一项研究，该研究旨在从分子上更深入地了解古生菌四醚脂质体的结构-活性关系，并改进其作为生物材料的用途，并探索其可能的新应用。本项目将检验以下两个假设：1)古生代双极四醚脂中环戊烷环数的增加将减少膜体积波动；2)体积波动可以定量地与溶质渗透和脂类横向扩散相关联。将使用各种物理技术，如高压荧光光谱、分子声学、压力微扰量热法和光漂白后的荧光恢复。预期的结果可能导致药物输送、储存、包衣和传感的新设计，所有这些都可能具有深刻的技术和生物医学意义。这项研究将带来一个严格的多学科计划，培养生物材料领域的本科生和研究生。与德国多特蒙德大学罗兰·温特教授的实验室拟议的国际合作，将使学生接触到不同的研究环境，并使他们能够接触到坦普尔大学不容易获得的许多尖端仪器。这项研究的目标是从嗜热古菌(在酸性温泉中发现的微生物)中分离出异常强壮的类脂，并研究由这些类脂形成的膜的物理性质。这些类脂膜在药物储存、涂层、环境保护、靶向给药和医疗诊断等领域具有广泛的应用前景，是一种有用的先进生物材料。这项拟议的研究将为这些潜在应用的开发建立科学基础，并引入一个涉及微生物学、化学和生物物理学的严格的研究生培训项目。这种多学科性质将增强和拓宽学生的教育和研究能力。学生们将有机会研究新的生物材料，参加国家会议来展示他们的发现，并获得拟议中的国际合作的经验。校园是美国最多元化的大学之一，该校的本科生将通过坦普尔大学本科生研究计划进行培训。该大学超过三分之一的本科生来自少数族裔社区。该项目还计划积极从当地高中和社区大学招生，让他们接触科研经验。

This award by the Biomaterials program in the Division of Materials Research to Temple University is in support of a research to gain a deeper molecular understanding of the structure-activity relationship of archaeal tetraether liposomes, and to improve their usage as biomaterials and explore their possible new applications. The following two hypotheses will be tested by this project: 1) an increase in the number of cyclopentane rings in archaeal bipolar tetraether lipids will decrease membrane volume fluctuations; and 2) volume fluctuations can be quantitatively correlated to solute permeation and lipid lateral diffusion. A variety of physical techniques such as high-pressure fluorescence spectroscopy, molecular acoustics, pressure perturbation calorimetry, and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching will be employed. The expected results may lead to new designs for drug delivery, storage, coating, and sensing, all of which may have profound technological and biomedical implications. This research will bring in a rigorous multidisciplinary program for training undergraduate and graduate students in the field of biomaterials. The proposed international collaboration with Professor Roland Winter's laboratory at the University of Dortmund, Germany, will expose students to different research settings and enable them to have access to many cutting-edge instruments that are not readily available at Temple University.The goals of this research are to isolate unusually robust lipids from the thermoacidophilic archaea (microorganisms found in acidic hot springs), and to study the physical properties of membranes formed from those lipids. These lipid membranes hold great promise as useful and advanced biomaterials for a number of technological applications such as drug storage, coating, environmental protection, targeted delivery of therapeutic agents, and medical diagnosis. This proposed research will build the scientific foundation for the development of these potential applications and bring in a rigorous graduate training project involving microbiology, chemistry, and biophysics. This multidisciplinary nature will enhance and broaden students' education and research capability. Students will have the opportunities to work on novel biomaterials, attend national meetings to present their findings, and gain experience with the proposed international collaboration. Undergraduate students at campus, one of the most diverse universities in the nation, will be trained through the Temple University Undergraduate Research Program. More than one third of University's undergraduate students are from minority communities. This project also plans to actively recruits students from local high schools and community colleges students and expose them to scientific research experience.