Synthetic Proteins: A Block Copolymer Approach

化学系的大分子、超分子和纳米化学项目正在资助纽约大学化学系的Marcus Weck教授设计和开发碳基聚合物构建块，这些构建块可以折叠成明确的三维聚集体，类似于自然界中常见的肽基。这些聚合物可用于复杂、多样和高度功能化的聚合物（塑料），用于光电、光学、生物、能源、生物医学和基于计算机的应用。作为本研究的一部分，将建立的设计原则允许使用非共价反应化学将聚合构建块控制和预先确定的组装成折叠的三级结构。该项目将前沿研究与本科生和研究生的培训结合起来。此外，韦克教授和他的研究团队正在开发一个涉及女子学校的教育项目“STEM工作影子体验”。其他影响更广泛的活动还包括，每两个月举办一次的市内三年级和四年级学生活动，并通过一系列动手实验向他们介绍聚合物科学。这项工作的重点是异质远螺旋聚合物的形成及其组装成结构明确的3D结构，使人想起肽基序。其中定向超分子基序被安装在聚合物末端，侧链是螺旋状、卷状或片状的。基于甲基丙烯酰胺和芳基异氰酸酯的多嵌段螺旋共聚物的方法得到了发展。所合成的构建块用于制造肽基序的合成类似物，如螺旋束和锌指。与该奖项相关的折叠图案使用一系列技术进行表征，包括核磁共振、紫外可见、荧光和圆二色光谱，以及光和x射线散射技术和原子力显微镜。研究小组进行了系统的结构-性质关系研究，以阐明特定的非共价相互作用对聚合物构建块的自组装行为的影响。这种“即插即用”策略的使用允许通过设计实现三级和四级聚合物结构。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。

With this award, the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry is funding Professor Marcus Weck of the Department of Chemistry at New York University to design and develop carbon-based polymeric building blocks that fold into well-defined 3-dimentional aggregates that resemble peptide motifs common in Nature. These polymers may be used in complex, diverse, and highly functionalized polymers (plastics) for electro-optical, optical, biological, energy, biomedical and computer-based applications. The design principles that will be established as part of this research allow for the controlled and pre-determined assembly of polymeric building blocks into folded tertiary structures using non-covalent reaction chemistry. This project pairs cutting edge research with the training of undergraduate and graduate students. In addition, Professor Weck and his research team are developing an educational program "STEM Job Shadowing Experience" involving all-girls schools. Examples of other broader impact activities include hosting bimonthly third and fourth grade inner city school children and introducing them to the excitement of polymer science through a series of hands on experiments.This work is focused on the formation of heterotelechelic polymers and their assembly into architecturally well-defined 3D structures reminiscent of peptidic motifs. The building blocks wherein directional supramolecular motifs are installed on the polymer termini and the side-chains are helical, coil-like or sheet-like. Methodologies are developed towards multiblock helical copolymers based on methacrylamides and aryl isocyanides. The synthesized building blocks are used to fabricate the synthetic analog of peptidic motifs such as helix-bundles and zinc fingers. Folded motifs associated with this award are characterized using a battery of techniques including nuclear magnetic resonance, UV-Visible, fluorescence, and circular dichroism spectroscopies, as well as light and X-ray scattering techniques and atomic force microscopy. The research team performs systematic structure-property relationship studies to elucidate the effect of specific non-covalent interactions on the self-assembly behavior of the polymeric building blocks. This use of a "plug-and-play" strategy allows for the realization of tertiary and quaternary polymeric structures by design.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.