Archaeal Tetraether Liposomes

该奖项由材料研究部的生物材料计划授予天普大学，以支持一项研究，以获得对古生四醚脂质体结构-活性关系的更深入的分子理解，并改善其作为生物材料的使用并探索其可能的新应用。本项目将检验以下两个假设：1）古细菌双极四醚脂质中环戊烷环数量的增加将减少膜体积波动; 2）体积波动可以与溶质渗透和脂质侧向扩散定量相关。各种物理技术，如高压荧光光谱，分子声学，压力扰动量热法，和荧光恢复后，光漂白将被采用。预期的结果可能会导致药物输送，储存，涂层和传感的新设计，所有这些都可能具有深远的技术和生物医学意义。这项研究将为培养生物材料领域的本科生和研究生带来一个严格的多学科计划。这项与德国多特蒙德大学罗兰温特教授实验室的国际合作计划，将使学生接触到不同的研究环境，并使他们能够接触到许多在坦普尔大学不容易获得的尖端仪器。这项研究的目标是从嗜热嗜酸古菌中分离出异常强大的脂质（在酸性温泉中发现的微生物），并研究由这些脂质形成的膜的物理性质。这些脂质膜作为有用的和先进的生物材料具有很大的前景，用于许多技术应用，如药物储存、涂层、环境保护、治疗剂的靶向递送和医学诊断。这项拟议的研究将为这些潜在应用的发展奠定科学基础，并带来涉及微生物学，化学和生物物理学的严格的研究生培训项目。这种多学科性质将提高和扩大学生的教育和研究能力。学生将有机会从事新型生物材料的研究，参加国家会议以展示他们的发现，并获得拟议的国际合作经验。校园里的本科生是全国最多样化的大学之一，将通过坦普尔大学本科研究计划进行培训。超过三分之一的大学本科生来自少数民族社区。该项目还计划积极招募当地高中和社区大学的学生，让他们接触科学研究经验。

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.