Collaborative Research: RUI: Toward Structure-Based Models of Chiral Recognition by Amino Acid Based Macromolecular Assemblies

本项目由化学学部化学测量与成像（CMI）项目资助。德克萨斯农工大学科珀斯克里斯蒂分校的比洛特和比洛特教授、迦太基学院的凯文·莫里斯和霍华德大学的方亚英组成了一个多机构合作项目。这项工作的重点是调查和阐明负责分子自组装的因素，以及这些因素如何影响自组装分子结构相互作用和识别其他生物重要性分子的能力。多种实验和计算方法被用来建立定量结构对映选择性保留关系（QSERR）。然后使用QSERR来评估和比较不同手性选择器在毛细管电泳分离中的有效性。这三所院校中有两所主要是本科院校，目前没有化学硕士课程。因此，研究将只在这两所学校进行，由本科生进行。其中一个是西班牙裔服务机构。参与这项研究的第三所大学是HBCU。这项研究是pi招募、培训和指导来自代表性不足和经济困难背景的学生的工具，并鼓励这些学生攻读理科学士学位。拟议的研究是一项正在进行的长期多方面研究的一部分，该研究的重点是调查和阐明(a)自组装，(b)功能，(c)高阶结构和(d)氨基酸基大分子组装（AABMAs）的分子识别因素。研究重点是考察pH值、离子强度、表面活性剂浓度和反离子类型对上述因素的影响。这些AABMAs在本研究中被用作毛细管电泳的手性假固定相。因此，这些研究的主要重点是深入了解这类手性选择器的手性识别因素。对这些因素的深入了解将有助于增强手性分离和改进假固定相。了解这种相互作用不仅对手性识别介质的开发很重要，而且对分离条件的优化也很重要。此外，由于所研究系统的对映体识别是氨基酸，从这些研究中获得的知识将有可能转移到其他基于氨基酸的系统，如蛋白质。

This project is funded by the Chemical Measurement and Imaging (CMI) program in the Division of Chemistry. Professors Billiot and Billiot of Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi, Kevin Morris of Carthage College, and Yayin Fang of Howard University form a multi-institutional collaboration. The work focuses on the investigation and elucidation of the factors responsible for molecular self-assembly, and how these factors affect the ability of the self-assembled molecular structures to interact and recognize other molecules of biological importance. A variety of experimental and computational methods are used to developed Quantitative Structure Enantioselective Retention Relationships (QSERR). QSERR is then used to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of different chiral selectors for capillary electrophoretic separations. Two of the three institutions are primarily undergraduate institutions that currently do not have a master's program in chemistry. Thus, the research will be conducted at these two schools exclusively by undergraduate students. One of these is also a Hispanic Serving Institution. The third university involved in the research is an HBCU. The research serves as a tool for the PIs to recruit, train, and mentor students from underrepresented and economically challenged backgrounds and to encourage these students to pursue post baccalaureate degrees in science. The proposed research is part of an ongoing, long-term multi-faceted study focusing on investigating and elucidating the factors responsible for (a) self-assembly, (b) function, (c) higher ordered structure and (d) molecular recognition of amino acid based macromolecular assemblies (AABMAs). In particular, the research will focus on examining the effects that pH, ionic strength, surfactant concentration, and type of counter-ion have on the factors mentioned above. These AABMAs are being utilized in this study as chiral pseudostationary phases in capillary electrophoresis. Thus, the major focus of these studies is to gain insights into the factors responsible for chiral recognition with this class of chiral selector. A deeper understanding of these factors will lead to enhanced chiral separations and improved pseudostationary phases. Understanding such interactions is not only important in the development of chiral recognition media but also in the optimization of the separation conditions. In addition, since enantiorecognition of the systems under study are amino acids, the knowledge gained from these studies will be potentially transferable to other amino acid based systems such as proteins.