Bioinspired Soft Materials

仿生软材料

• 批准号: 1420382
• 负责人: Seth Fraden
• 金额: $ 1200万
• 依托单位: Brandeis University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-11-01 至 2021-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1420382&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Bioinspired; Soft; Materials

****Nontechnical abstract****Nature acts as an exquisite engineer capable of creating structures and functionalities that are unmatched by anything manmade, such as the rupture-free passage of a virus through a cellular membrane, the ability of a highly motile white blood cells to seek and destroy an immunogenic target, or synchronously beating ciliary fields clearing debris from a lung. This research team draws inspiration from such biological capabilities. They seek to uncover the fundamental design principles underlying these and other remarkable biological functions, and to use this knowledge to create a new generation of biomaterials that are endowed with properties heretofore found only in living organisms. The research straddles the interface between biology and materials science. Starting from a few well-characterized building blocks of biochemical origin, they are building structures of increasing complexity to determine which components are required for the emergence of desired biological functionality. The project runs a multi-level outreach and education program, structured around a set of key activities: exhibits at the Discovery Museums of Acton, MA, field trips for high school students, a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates, minority mentoring program in conjunction with the Science Posse of New York, summer courses in advanced experimental techniques based on the project's shared facilities and provides career development opportunities for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. ****Technical abstract****This project seeks to create new materials that are constructed from only a few simplified components, yet capture the remarkable functionalities found in living organisms. In addition to opening new directions in materials science research, these efforts serve to elucidate the minimal requirements for the emergence of biological function. This challenging endeavor draws on expertise in diverse and complementary experimental and theoretical techniques that span the physical and life sciences. This group of individuals are collaborating to combine elemental building blocks, such as motor proteins, DNA origami and filamentous virus, to understand the emergence of biomimetic functionalities that are highly sought-after in materials science and to synergistically engineer life-like materials. The goal of their first project, Membrane based Materials, is to uncover the design principles that cells use to shape and reconfigure membranes, and to apply these principles in order to engineer heterogeneous and reconfigurable membrane materials. To accomplish this they are exploiting the analogy between nanometer-sized lipid bilayers and micron-sized colloidal monolayers assembled from filamentous viruses or DNA origami rods. The goal of their second project, Biological Active Materials, is to create active analogs of quintessential soft matter systems including gels, liquids crystals, emulsions and vesicles using elemental force generators, such as motor proteins and monomer treadmilling. They are experimentally and theoretically characterizing the emergent properties of such materials, including their ability to convert chemical energy into mechanical work, perform locomotion, and undergo dynamical reconfiguration.

* 非技术性摘要 * 大自然就像一个精巧的工程师，能够创造出任何人造事物都无法比拟的结构和功能，例如病毒无破裂地穿过细胞膜，高度活跃的白色血细胞寻找和破坏免疫原性靶点的能力，或者同步跳动纤毛场清除肺部碎片的能力。这个研究小组从这种生物学能力中获得了灵感。他们试图揭示这些和其他显着的生物功能背后的基本设计原则，并利用这些知识来创造新一代的生物材料，这些材料具有迄今为止仅在生物体中发现的特性。这项研究跨越了生物学和材料科学之间的界面。从几个充分表征的生物化学来源的构建模块开始，它们正在构建越来越复杂的结构，以确定哪些组分是出现所需生物功能所必需的。该项目围绕一系列关键活动开展多层次的外联和教育方案：在马萨诸塞州阿克顿的发现博物馆展出，高中生实地考察，本科生暑期研究体验，与纽约的科学波塞联合开展的少数民族指导计划，夏季课程，在先进的实验技术的基础上，该项目的共享设施，并提供职业发展的机会，研究生和后，博士研究员。* 技术摘要 * 该项目旨在创造新材料，这些材料仅由几个简化的组件构成，但却能捕捉到生物体中发现的显著功能。 除了开辟材料科学研究的新方向外，这些努力还有助于阐明生物功能出现的最低要求。这一具有挑战性的奋进借鉴了跨越物理和生命科学的多种互补实验和理论技术的专业知识。这群人正在合作将联合收割机元素构建模块（如马达蛋白、DNA折纸和丝状病毒）结合起来，以了解材料科学中备受追捧的仿生功能的出现，并协同设计类似生命的材料。他们的第一个项目，基于膜的材料的目标是揭示细胞用于塑造和重新配置膜的设计原则，并应用这些原则来设计异质和可重新配置的膜材料。为了实现这一目标，他们正在利用纳米尺寸的脂质双层和微米尺寸的胶体单层之间的类比，这些单层是由丝状病毒或DNA折纸棒组装而成的。他们的第二个项目生物活性材料的目标是使用元素力发生器（如马达蛋白和单体微磨）创建典型软物质系统的活性类似物，包括凝胶，液体晶体，乳液和囊泡。他们正在实验和理论上表征这些材料的涌现特性，包括它们将化学能转化为机械功，进行运动和进行动态重构的能力。