Generation and design of bifunctional bacteriophages and peptides: integrating organics and inorganics into multifunctional materials

无机功能材料的需求在过去几年中强劲增长，目前的重点是不同特性的多功能复合材料。然而，由于技术上的困难，再加上传统合成方法对材料组装融合几种性能的要求，纳米材料的生产受到了限制。利用生物矿化技术加工下一代材料为克服传统加工方法的局限性提供了一种创新的解决方案。在拟议的项目中，计划生产具有导电性和热性能的生物有机-无机材料（例如电容器和压电元件）。在我们的部分，我们将基因工程双功能噬菌体和肽作为构建和组织这些材料组件的支架。从噬菌体文库中，可以识别并利用前体盐溶液控制无机相矿化的多肽将被发现并应用。利用基于生物技术和生物信息学的综合方法，研究肽识别和结合无机材料的分子机制，设计具有更高亲和力和特异性的肽。选择和工程肽的结合，无论是作为融合蛋白显示在噬菌体表面还是作为双功能肽，将有助于合成复杂的多功能复合材料。

The demand for inorganic functional materials has strongly increased over the last couple of years, with the focus now on multifunctional composite materials of different characteristics. However, the production of nanomaterials due to technical difficulties combined with the requirements for the fusion of several properties through material assembly by conventional synthesis methods is limited. The use of biomineralization to process the next generation of materials provides an innovative solution to overcome the limitations of traditional processing methods.In the proposed project it is planned to generate bioorganic-inorganic materials with electrical conductivity and thermal properties (e.g. capacitors and piezoelectrical elements). In our part we will genetically engineer bifunctional bacteriophages and peptides as scaffolds for constructing and organizing these material components. Peptides which can specifically recognize and initiate a controlled mineralization of an inorganic phase with precursor salt solutions will be identified from phage libraries and employed. Using an integrated approach based on biotechnology and bioinformatics, the molecular mechanism of peptide recognition of and binding to inorganic materials will be investigated and peptides with improved affinity and specificity will be designed.The combination of selected and engineered peptides, either as fusion proteins displayed on the phage surface or as bifunctional peptides, will facilitate the synthesis of complex multifunctional composite materials.