EAGER: Chiral Membranes for Protein Resistance

1546589RPIBelfort这项迫切的提议可能是一项高风险、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-膜表面的相互作用。最近，PI发现膜表面的手性影响蛋白质溶液的过滤。如果存在另一个分子，该分子具有相同的组成，但排列在不可叠加的镜像中，即类似于人类的手，则认为一个分子是手性的。在生物处理、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黏附或蛋白质污染。蛋白质的这种不受欢迎的粘连是一个重大的技术和经济挑战。使用手性表面来减少这些限制将是显著的，并且具有广泛的影响。PI提出表面应该具有与蛋白质相同的手性(手性假设)。这项研究的目标是(I)确认、扩展和研究手性在蛋白质耐药性方面的作用，以及(Ii)确定手性膜是否可以分离小分子的对映体。这种可能减少蛋白质污染的截然不同的方法还处于早期阶段，对生物处理具有潜在的变革作用。

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.