EAGER: Coacervate Protocell Microdrops for Downstream Processing Applications

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The manufacture of pharmaceuticals requires isolation of a bioactive compound of interest from a complex multi-component solution. The components within the solution often have similar chemical and physical properties, making isolation and purification of a specific desired component difficult, resource intensive, and expensive. Undesirable biological side effects of impurities necessitate a robust and reliable separation process. This project will explore a fundamentally new approach to separate pharmaceuticals, using engineered polymers to create microscopic drops that concentrate the compound of interest into a second phase, in a process known as coacervation. Concentration within a coacervate drop mimics the process by which bacteria selectively transfer compounds of interest across the cell wall. The coacervate drops thus acts as a membrane-less "protocell" to concentrate and partition compounds of interest into the interior. This project focuses on designing the polymers with a controlled trigger for coacervation to isolate biological compounds of interest with molecular-level specificity. This project will concentrate and partition representative biological compounds from dilute aqueous solutions via complex coacervation using polymer macromolecules. The polymer macromolecules will be molecularly designed with oppositely charged, or hydrogen bonding, functional groups that trigger coacervation via strong intermolecular interactions. Coacervation will lead to a liquid-liquid separation that concentrates the species of interest into a dense, polymer rich liquid. Partitioning into this phase then facilities recovery and/or disposal. This early-concept grant for exploratory research (EAGER) project will test the primary hypothesis that the coacervate drop will stabilize select model biological molecules from dilute, yet complex, aqueous media. The interaction between model proteins and various coacervate environments will be examined. It is anticipated that this concept will lead to the use of coacervate drops as protocells to isolate and recover compounds of interest. It is anticipated that successful demonstration of this early-concept will lead to use of coacervate drops for increasingly complex tasks, such as use as cell-like microreactors for waste degradation.