CAREER: Vesicle Growth Driven by Catalytic Lipid Synthesis

在这个由化学部大分子，超分子和纳米化学计划资助的项目中，加州大学圣地亚哥分校的Neal Devaraj将研究催化偶联反应，该反应可以驱动磷脂组装体的自组装和竞争性生长。 主要的研究思路是，囊泡内的原位催化脂质合成应该提供一条途径，能够选择性生长和分裂的组件。实验方法包括研究和开发能够原位产生磷脂的化学物质，合成与特定囊泡相关的新型催化剂，以及监测囊泡竞争和生长现象。 了解驱动囊泡生长所需的化学物质将增强我们对仿生组装的知识，并可能揭示生命起源所必需的化学机制。更广泛的影响涉及开发一个教育组件，将拟议的囊泡研究与加州大学圣地亚哥分校现有的K-20外展工作相结合。 特别是，将重点关注在STEM领域通常代表性不足的人群。这些推广工作将对圣地亚哥地区的K-12 STEM教育产生重大影响，特别是在让广大学生和教师接触生命起源和超分子化学主题方面。反应性小分子如何导致生命的起源是化学中的一个“大挑战”问题，拟议的研究旨在提高我们对这一现象背后的化学过程的基本理解。从这些研究中产生的知识也可以指导合成自我复制材料的努力，这可能导致具有先进性能的新型材料。

In this project funded by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Neal Devaraj of the University of California, San Diego will study catalytic coupling reactions that can drive the self-assembly and competitive growth of phospholipid assemblies. The main research idea is that in-situ catalytic lipid synthesis within vesicles should provide a route to assemblies capable of selective growth and division. The experimental approach includes studying and developing chemistries capable of generating phospholipid in-situ, synthesizing novel catalysts that associate themselves with specific vesicles, and monitoring vesicle competition and growth phenomenon. Understanding the chemistry required for driving vesicle growth would enhance our knowledge of biomimetic assemblies and could reveal chemical mechanisms that were essential to the origin of life. The broader impacts involve developing an educational component integrating the proposed vesicle research with an existing K-20 outreach effort at UC San Diego. In particular, there will be a focus on reaching populations typically underrepresented in STEM fields. These outreach efforts will be significant in their impact on K-12 STEM education in the San Diego area, particularly with respect to exposing a broad range of students and teachers to origin of life and supramolecular chemistry topics. How sets of reactive small molecules led to the origin of life is "Grand Challenge" a problem in chemistry, and the proposed studies seek to improve our fundamental understanding of the chemical processes underlying this phenomenon. Knowledge generated from these studies also could guide efforts toward the synthesis of self-replicating materials which could lead to new types of materials with advanced properties.