EAGER: Chiral Membranes for Protein Resistance

这项EAGER提案是一项潜在的高风险高回报的努力，因为它涉及一种变革性的新方法来减少非特异性蛋白质-膜表面相互作用。最近，PI发现膜表面手性影响蛋白质溶液的过滤。一个分子被认为是手性的，如果存在另一个分子是相同的组成，但其排列在一个不可重叠的镜像，即类似于人的手。在生物加工、海洋结构和医疗设备中，合成膜过滤会发生非特异性蛋白质粘附或蛋白质污染。这种不希望的蛋白质粘附是一项重大的技术和经济挑战。减少手性表面的这些限制将具有重要意义和广泛的影响。PI提出表面应该具有与蛋白质相同的手性（手性假说）。本研究的目标是：(1)确认、扩展和研究手性在蛋白质抗性方面的作用，以及(2)确定手性膜是否可以为小分子分离对映体。这种可能减少蛋白质污染的完全不同的方法尚处于早期阶段，对生物加工具有潜在的变革意义。

1546589RPIBelfortThis EAGER proposal is potentially a high risk high payoff effort as it involves a transformative, new approach to reduce non-specific protein-membrane surface interactions. Recently the PI discovered that membrane surface chirality influences filtration with protein solutions. A molecule is considered chiral if there exists another molecule that is of identical composition, but which is arranged in a non-superposable mirror image, i.e. similar to human hands. Non-specific protein adhesion or protein fouling occurs with synthetic membrane filtration in bioprocessing, with marine structures and with medical devices. This undesired adhesion of proteins is a major technical and economic challenge. Reducing these limitations with chiral surfaces would be significant and have broad impact.The PI proposes that the surface should have the same chirality as a protein (the chiral hypothesis). The goals of the research are to (i) confirm, expand and investigate the role of chirality with respect to protein resistance, and (ii) determine if chiral membranes can fractionate enantiomers for small molecules. This radically different approach to possibly reducing protein fouling is in its early stages and is potentially transformative for bioprocessing.