Active Assembly of Conducting Peptide Gels

在活的有机体中，一些结构部件只有在特定功能需要时才组装起来，然后在不再需要它们时拆卸。在这个项目中，纽约城市大学的Rein Ulijn教授和加州大学欧文分校的Allon Hochbaum教授的研究团队旨在了解如何控制动态装配过程，并探索将生物世界的设计概念融入合成非生物材料的可行性。该项目的一个重要目标是开发新的方法来制备导电组件，这些组件可以根据环境或外部刺激改变形状并建立新的连接，模仿生物材料的动态行为。该组件在生物医学应用中作为连接电子设备与生物系统的材料具有潜在的用途。本项目为研究生和本科生提供跨学科的研究训练。该团队鼓励来自当地（纽约哈莱姆区和加州欧文区）的高中生，包括代表性不足的少数民族学生，开展动手教育和探索项目。在美国国家科学基金会化学部大分子、超分子和纳米化学项目的支持下，研究小组设计了基于生物催化反应的肽纳米结构的瞬态组装，该反应利用化学燃料动态维持自组装状态。活化的氨基酸甲酯，储存在酯键中的能量，作为燃料，提供驱动组装过程所需的化学能。氨基酸部分对缠绕形成凝胶相材料的纳米纤维的自组装进行编码。修改肽序列可以调节装配动力学和纤维稳定性。电子功能是通过将半导体有机分子纳入肽构建块而引入的。该项目的另一个目标是将所得材料与神经元细胞结合起来，研究通过这些材料是否可以通过电子刺激影响神经元细胞的行为。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In living organisms, some structural components are assembled only when they are demanded for specific functions and then dissembled when they are no longer needed. In this project, the research teams of Prof. Rein Ulijn at the City University of New York, and Prof. Allon Hochbaum at the University of California, Irvine, aim to understand how to control dynamic assembly processes and explore the feasibility of incorporating design concepts from the biological world into synthetic, non-living materials. An important goal of this project is to develop new approaches to preparing electrically conducting assemblies that can change shape and make new connections in response to the environment or external stimuli, mimicking the dynamic behavior of biological materials. The assemblies are potentially useful as materials for interfacing electronic devices with biological systems in biomedical applications. This project provides interdisciplinary research training to graduate and undergraduate students. The team inspires high school students, including underrepresented minority students, from the local area (Harlem, NY and Irvine, CA) with hands-on education and discovery programs.With the support from the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program of the NSF Division of Chemistry, the research team designs transient assemblies of peptide nanostructures, based on biocatalytic reactions that utilize chemical fuels to dynamically sustain the self-assembled state. Activated amino acid methyl esters, with the energy stored in the ester bond, serve as fuels to provide the chemical energy required to drive assembly processes. The amino acid part encodes the self-assembly of nanofibers that entangle to form a gel-phase material. Modification of the peptide sequence enables modulation of the assembly dynamics and fiber stability. Electronic functionality is introduced by incorporating semi-conducting organic molecules into the peptide building blocks. Another aim of the project is to integrate the resulting materials with neuronal cells to investigate whether the behavior of neuronal cell can be influenced by electronic stimulation through these materials.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.