CRII: AF: RUI: Explorations in the Self-Assembly of Distributed Biological Functions

CRII：AF：RUI：分布式生物功能自组装的探索

• 批准号: 1755959
• 负责人: Jacob Hendricks
• 金额: $ 17.43万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-River Falls
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1755959&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CRII; AF; RUI; Explorations; Self

The process of self-assembly is observable in many natural phenomena. Through this process, individual components (for example, molecules) that are guided merely by local binding rules coalesce to form complex structures. This process is integral to the formation of many vastly complicated structures such as snowflakes and even biological organisms like viruses. Using self-assembly, scientists are developing a bottom-up manufacturing approach to nanotechnology where instead of starting with raw materials and extracting a desired structure, molecular building blocks are designed so that these building blocks selectively bind in such a way that the desired structure self-assembles with molecular- (if not atomic-) level precision. While many mathematical models have been defined to serve as a theory for the design and analysis of engineered self-assembling systems, as self-assembly is also a naturally occurring phenomenon, models of self-assembly are useful in modeling natural systems. A common important feature of many naturally occurring examples of self-assembling systems is that these systems are driven by the complex interaction of distributed components. In order to describe the balancing act observed in the distributed components that play a role in many biological functions, this project will use mathematical models of self-assembly to study how complex sequences of communication between self-assembled components can yield functionality that surpasses functionality of a single self-assembled component. By supporting many undergraduate research assistants, this project will impact the campus and departmental research environment, as well as the quality of undergraduate education. Moreover, the project will increase awareness of interdisciplinary research at University of Wisconsin-River Falls by means of an interdisciplinary research seminar targeting a general audience and advertised to undergraduate students. The project proposes the study of fundamental questions that initiate the development of rigorous frameworks for modeling systems which exhibit distributed behaviors, leading to techniques that could directly be applied in defining tile assembly systems which mimic biological functions. Ultimately, studying distributed systems in models of self-assembly leads to further understanding of the complex behaviors as well as potential novel uses of distributed systems in self-assembly - uses that can be employed in engineered self-assembling systems. The project will use active tile assembly models such as the Signal-passing Tile Assembly Model (STAM) to define and analyze systems, which overcome defined constraints to exhibit algorithmic behavior, by necessarily relying on this behavior being distributed among the individual assemblies of the system.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

自组装的过程在许多自然现象中都可以观察到。通过这一过程，仅由局部结合规则引导的单个组分（例如分子）结合形成复杂的结构。 这个过程是形成许多非常复杂的结构，如雪花，甚至生物有机体，如病毒的组成部分。 使用自组装，科学家们正在开发一种自下而上的纳米技术制造方法，其中不是从原材料开始并提取所需的结构，而是设计分子构建块，以便这些构建块选择性地结合，从而使所需的结构自组装具有分子（如果不是原子）水平的精度。 虽然许多数学模型已被定义为工程自组装系统的设计和分析的理论，自组装也是一种自然发生的现象，自组装模型在建模自然系统是有用的。 许多自然发生的自组装系统的一个共同的重要特征是，这些系统是由分布式组件的复杂交互驱动的。为了描述在许多生物功能中发挥作用的分布式组件中观察到的平衡行为，该项目将使用自组装的数学模型来研究自组装组件之间的复杂通信序列如何产生超越单个自组装组件功能的功能。通过支持许多本科生研究助理，这个项目将影响校园和部门的研究环境，以及本科教育的质量。 此外，该项目还将通过面向普通受众并向本科生宣传的跨学科研究研讨会，提高威斯康星大学里弗福尔斯分校对跨学科研究的认识。 该项目提出了基本问题的研究，启动了严格的框架，表现出分布式行为的建模系统的发展，导致技术，可以直接应用于定义瓷砖组装系统，模仿生物功能。 最终，研究自组装模型中的分布式系统，可以进一步理解复杂的行为以及分布式系统在自组装中的潜在新用途-可以在工程自组装系统中使用。 该项目将使用主动瓦片组装模型，如信号传递瓦片组装模型（STAM）来定义和分析系统，这些系统克服了定义的约束，表现出算法行为，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的评估被认为值得支持。影响审查标准。