NSF/DMR-BSF: Peptide Based Multifunctional Materials for Selective Capture and Release of Nutrients and Contaminants

第1部分：非技术概述磷对食品生产至关重要。不断增长的全球人口增加了对高质量食品的需求和以植物为基础的生物燃料的生产，导致天然磷资源迅速枯竭。这种不可持续的磷来源的突出事实是，开采的磷酸盐最终从粮食生产系统中作为农业径流、牲畜粪便和食品加工废物流失。此外，含磷酸盐的废物流污染了天然水体，导致生物多样性和饮用水减少。因此，促进磷的分离和循环利用的努力对于保护天然水体和维持全球粮食生产是必要的。这项工作旨在开发一种可逆的生物分子识别系统，该系统将在有问题的地方去除磷酸盐，回收磷酸盐，并将其重新插入全球粮食生产系统，作为加强这种稀缺资源可持续利用的一种手段。材料科学面临的一个挑战是开发可选择性捕获和释放关键营养物质（如磷、氮和钾）和污染物（如重金属、有机氯农药、病原体）的材料。这项工作旨在开发一种新的、优化的、多功能的材料，用于基于具有超分子磷酸盐识别能力的生物学启发的肽两亲体选择性分离磷。这些肽两亲体的可调自组装特性将用于设计一个系统，该系统可以(1)从模型废物流中隔离磷，(2)使磷能够特异性释放和再利用，(3)抑制可能导致生物污染的非特异性相互作用和细菌生长。这项工作的阶段将从设计和合成这些具有疏水偶联的功能肽，到这些分子在表面和胶束结构上的组装，再到磷酸结合能量和动力学的测量。在此实验开发周期的同时，分子模拟将旨在阐明实验工作中候选肽的磷酸盐结合机制，并发现具有改进的超分子识别和组装特性的肽，然后将其反馈到实验程序中。

PART 1: NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARYPhosphorous is essential to food production. Rising global population is increasing demand for high quality foods and production of plant-based biofuels, causing the rapid depletion of natural phosphorus resources. This non-sustainable sourcing of phosphorus is underscored by the fact that, ultimately, mined phosphate is lost from the food production system as agricultural runoff, livestock manure and food-processing wastes. In addition, phosphate-containing waste streams contaminate natural bodies of water, which leads to a decrease in biodiversity and potable drinking water. Therefore, efforts that advance the separation and recycling of phosphorus are necessary for protecting natural bodies of water and sustaining global food production. This work aims to develop a reversible bio-molecular recognition system that will remove phosphate where it is problematic, recover it, and reinsert it into the global food-production system as a means for enhancing sustainable use of this scarce resource. PART 2: TECHNICAL SUMMARY A challenge in materials science is the development of materials for selective capture and release of key nutrients (e.g., phosphorous, nitrogen and potassium) and contaminants (e.g., heavy metals, organochlorine pesticides, pathogens). This work aims to develop a novel, optimized, multifunctional material for selective separation of phosphorus based on biologically inspired, peptide amphiphiles with supramolecular phosphate recognition capabilities. The tunable self-assembly properties of these peptide amphiphiles will be used to engineer a system that (1) sequesters phosphorus from model waste streams, (2) enables specific release and reuse of phosphorus, and (3) inhibits non-specific interactions and bacterial growth that can lead to bio-fouling. The stages of this proposed work will progress from design and synthesis of these functional peptides with hydrophobic conjugation, to assembly of these molecules on surfaces and in micellar constructs, to measurement of phosphate binding energetics and kinetics. In parallel with this experimental development cycle, molecular simulations will be aimed at elucidating the phosphate-binding mechanism of the peptide candidates in the experimental work and discovering peptides with improved supramolecular recognition and assembly properties, which can then feed back into the experimental program.