MIP: GlycoMIP - Automating the Synthesis of Rationally Designed Glycomaterials

非技术描述碳水化合物是地球上含量最丰富的有机化合物，存在于生命的所有主要大分子构件中，包括核酸、蛋白质和类脂。糖基材料是以碳水化合物为基础的聚合物材料，具有多种生物功能，包括生化信号、结构支持和保水。由于其复杂的分子结构，糖基材料比其他生物聚合物更难设计、创造和表征。目前还没有广泛可用的方法来大规模合成和快速表征它们。这些科学和技术挑战阻碍了我们对这些无处不在的材料的理解，这些材料对促进可持续材料、可再生能源技术和人类健康至关重要。GlycoMIP是一家NSF材料创新平台，总部设在弗吉尼亚理工大学和佐治亚大学，通过独特的国家用户设施和领先的内部研究，加速糖材料科学和技术的发现，并推动材料基因组计划在材料开发领域的范式转变。GlycoMIP用户设施通过获得最先进的设备、世界一流的服务和技术数据，为来自学术界、工业界和政府研究机构的研究人员提供支持，以便在分子、超分子和宏观(整体性质)水平上合成、表征生物灵感糖材料并对其进行建模。在Brandeis大学、Rensselaer理工学院和北卡罗来纳大学世界领先专业知识的支持下，GlycoMIP的内部研究利用物理科学、工程、计算和生命科学的高效融合，在可扩展合成、高通量表征和糖材料的中尺度建模方面实现科技突破。GlycoMIP是一个全国性的协作室，在这里，糖类材料社区的成员共享工具、样本、数据、软件和技术诀窍，以集体推动糖类材料科学和技术的发展。GlycoMIP为用户和潜在用户提供关于糖材料科学和技术主题的短期课程、实践培训课程和教程，并在加速材料开发方面培训下一代糖材料研究人员。技术说明弗吉尼亚理工大学和佐治亚大学的GlycoMIP用户设施向来自全国各地的外部研究人员开放，为糖材料的合成、表征和建模提供独特的实验和计算工具，并促进材料基因组计划的材料研究和开发方法。这些设备包括用于从头合成葡聚糖的自动化合成器、用于原位分析葡聚糖的质谱仪(MS)成像系统、用于深入分析葡聚糖结构的高分辨率多级MS系统、用于高通量定量结合事件的表面等离子共振成像和生物分子层干涉测量系统、用于分析溶液状态构象的两台振动光学活性光谱仪以及用于表征基于葡聚糖的溶液和凝胶的流变仪。该设施还向用户提供多个开放获取的数据库和在线服务，以促进MS和核磁共振光谱分配的自动化，提供对分子建模的访问，并使自动化多糖合成得以优化。GlycoMIP的内部研究解决了具有预先定义的溶液和凝胶状态属性的糖材料的合理分子设计的巨大挑战，特别关注通过计算机引导的一级结构和分子结构的设计来加速开发具有预测的结合、构象或自组装行为的糖材料。该材料创新平台奖由材料研究部门(DMR)和分子和细胞生物科学部门(MCB)联合资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Nontechnical DescriptionCarbohydrates are the most abundant class of organic compounds on Earth and are found in all main macromolecular building blocks of life, including nucleic acids, proteins and lipids. Glycomaterials are carbohydrate-based polymeric materials with diverse biological functions including biochemical signaling, structural support, and water retention. Because of their complex molecular structures, glycomaterials are more difficult to design, create, and characterize than other biopolymers. There are no widely available methods for their large-scale synthesis and rapid characterization. These scientific and technological challenges hinder our understanding of these ubiquitous materials, vitally important to advancing sustainable materials, renewable energy technologies, and human health. Anchored at Virginia Tech and the University of Georgia, GlycoMIP, an NSF Materials Innovation Platform, accelerates discovery in glycomaterials science and technology through a unique national user facility and leading-edge in-house research and advances the implementation of the Materials Genome Initiative paradigm shift in materials development. The GlycoMIP user facility supports researchers from academia, industry, and government research institutions through access to state-of-the-art equipment, world-class services, and technical data for the synthesis, characterization, and modeling of bioinspired glycomaterials at the molecular, supramolecular, and macroscopic (bulk property) levels. Strengthened by world-leading expertise at Brandeis University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the University of North Carolina, the in-house research of GlycoMIP employs efficient convergence of physical sciences, engineering, computation, and life sciences to achieve scientific and technological breakthroughs in scalable synthesis, high-throughput characterization, and mesoscale modeling of glycomaterials. GlycoMIP is a nationwide collaboratory, where members of the glycomaterials community share tools, samples, data, software, and know-how for the collective advancement of glycomaterials science and technology. GlycoMIP offers short courses, hands-on training courses, and tutorials on glycomaterials science and technology topics to users and potential users and trains the next generation of glycomaterials researchers in accelerated materials development.Technical DescriptionOpen to external researchers from across the nation, the GlycoMIP user facility at Virginia Tech and the University of Georgia provides access to unique experimental and computational tools for glycomaterials synthesis, characterization, and modeling and facilitates Materials Genome Initiative approaches to materials research and development. These include automated glycan synthesizers for de novo glycan synthesis, a mass spectrometry (MS) imaging system for in-situ glycan analysis, high-resolution, multi-stage MS systems for in-depth glycan structural analysis, surface plasmon resonance imaging and biolayer interferometry systems for high-throughput quantitation of binding events, two vibrational optical activity spectrometers for analysis of solution-state conformations, and a rheometer for the characterization of glycan-based solutions and gels. The facility also offers users multiple open-access databases and online services to facilitate automation of MS and nuclear magnetic resonance spectral assignments, provide access to molecular modeling, and enable optimization of automated glycan synthesis. The in-house research of GlycoMIP addresses the grand challenge of rational molecular design of glycomaterials with predefined solution- and gel-state properties, focusing specifically on accelerated development of glycomaterials with predicted binding, conformational, or self-assembly behaviors through computer-guided design of primary structure and molecular architecture.This Materials Innovation Platform award is jointly funded by the Division of Materials Research (DMR) and Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB).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.