EAPSI: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Correlation Studies for Identification of Water and Polymer Populat

流体的流动性和粘弹性物质（如凝胶）的结构对人类健康和许多关键行业都很重要。凝胶的一个例子是关节软骨，这种组织排列在关节上，允许像走路这样的有效运动。本研究通过核磁共振相关研究表征模型软骨的流体流动性和孔隙结构，旨在识别复杂生物聚合物体系中的水和聚合物种群。这些信息将提高人们对粘弹性物质中聚合物体系和水之间关系的理解。尽管这些研究集中在软骨模型上，但许多哺乳动物组织和许多商业应用都依赖于水和聚合物的扩散以及它们如何相互作用，这表明这项工作可能会产生广泛的影响。该项目是与新西兰惠灵顿大学麦克迪尔米德先进材料和纳米技术研究所的Petrik Galvosas博士合作的，它使一名美国研究生能够学习新技术，以扩展她作为一名实验人员的技能。关节软骨是一种哺乳动物组织，它与血液没有联系，因此依赖于水的分子流动性来维持营养物质的流动和生存。它也是一种复杂的多相、各向异性的聚合物复合材料，由流体、胶原蛋白和蛋白聚糖组成。本研究将使用脉冲场梯度（PFG）核磁共振（NMR）来表征模型软骨的内部结构，胶原水凝胶，作为胶原含量的函数。这一信息对于理解关节软骨的结构-功能关系至关重要，一般来说，凝胶。这些发现将适用于药物开发、动物范围科学和植物生理学等领域。该奖项由美国国家科学基金会和新西兰皇家学会共同资助，隶属于东亚和太平洋暑期研究所项目，支持一名美国研究生进行暑期研究。

The mobility of fluid and the structure of viscoelastic substances such as gels is important to human health and many key industries. One example of a gel is articular cartilage, the tissue that lines joints and allows for efficient motion such as walking. This study conducts nuclear magnetic resonance correlation studies to characterize the fluid mobility and pore structure of a model cartilage, aiming to identify water and polymer populations in a complex biopolymer system. The information will improve understanding about the relationship between polymer systems and water in a viscoelastic substance. Although these studies focus on cartilage models, many mammalian tissues and many commercial applications are dependent on water and polymer diffusion and how they interact, suggesting potential broad impact to the work. The project is a collaboration with Dr. Petrik Galvosas at the McDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at Wellington University in New Zealand and enables a U.S. graduate student to learn new techniques to expand her skillset as an experimentalist. Articular cartilage is a mammalian tissue that is not connected to the blood stream and is therefore dependent on molecular mobility of water for nutrient flow and survival. It is also a complex heterogeneous, anisotropic, polymer composite composed of fluid, collagen, and proteoglycans. This study will used Pulsed Field Gradient (PFG) Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) to characterize the internal structure of a model cartilage, collagen hydrogels, as a function of collagen content. This information is critical to understanding the structure-function relationship of articular cartilage, and in general, gels. The findings will be applicable to fields such as drug development, animal range sciences, and plant physiology.This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Royal Society of New Zealand.