Archaeal Tetraether Liposomes

该奖项由天普大学材料研究部生物材料项目颁发，旨在支持一项研究，以获得对古细菌四醚脂质体结构-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)体积波动可以定量地与溶质渗透和脂质横向扩散相关。高压荧光光谱、分子声学、压力摄动量热法、光漂白后荧光恢复等多种物理技术将被应用。预期的结果可能会导致药物递送，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严格的多学科计划。与德国多特蒙德大学Roland Winter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天普大学无法获得的许多尖端仪器。这项研究的目的是从嗜热酸古菌（在酸性温泉中发现的微生物）中分离出异常强健的脂质，并研究由这些脂质形成的膜的物理性质。这些脂质膜在药物储存、涂层、环境保护、治疗药物靶向递送和医学诊断等许多技术应用中具有很大的前景。这项拟议的研究将为这些潜在应用的发展奠定科学基础，并带来严格的研究生培训项目，涉及微生物学，化学和生物物理学。这种多学科性质将增强和拓宽学生的教育和研究能力。学生将有机会研究新型生物材料，参加国家会议展示他们的发现，并获得拟议的国际合作的经验。天普大学是全美最多元化的大学之一，该校的本科生将通过天普大学本科生研究项目接受培训。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收当地高中学生和社区大学学生，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.