CAREER: Protein-integrated materials: From molecules to machines

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PART 1: NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY Humans live in a visual world, where analog or digital signals that lead to color and color change impact everyday decisions such as mobility, communication, and defense. In the ocean, soft-bodied marine animals like cephalopods (octopus, squid, and cuttlefish) are naturally endowed with advanced optical organs that enable them to change their skin color almost instantaneously. This award by the Biomaterials Program in the Division of Materials Research is to identify and understand the role of pigments and proteins in squid skin, specifically how they combine and contribute to dynamic color sensing and subsequent change. This bottom-up approach will provide a unified biochemical, optical, electrical, and physiological framework describing the adaptive coloration inherent to these marine animals. Results from this work are anticipated to inspire the design of next generation of adaptive and interactive materials that can benefit from new types of pigments and photonic materials derived from and inspired by cephalopods. This award includes an integrative education plan designed to leverage the knowledge, tools, and connections from the proposed research into educational experiences through experiential learning environments beyond the classroom. Specifically, this research will generate exciting visual content from underwater footage of incredible camouflage capability of marine life to bench top material demonstrations that respond dynamically to electrical signals (e.g. music) that will be used to create STEM learning modules focused on materials design for middle and high school classrooms. Beyond the classroom, the PI will develop and launch a seminar series with local female entrepreneurs to engage aspiring female undergraduate and graduate students interested in pursuing translational science. Finally, this research will support increasing participation of females and underrepresented minority groups at the national conferences focused on wearable technologies. PART 2: TECHNICAL SUMMARY While cephalopods have been a subject of research for many years, the fundamental physics and chemistry underlying their color modulation is still not well understood, and the reality of creating a material that mimics such outstanding capabilities remains elusive. For instance, a recent study of the cephalopod chromatophore revealed an abundance of lens-crystallin proteins confined within nanostructured pigment granules, indicating a functional convergence between the eyes and skin of the animals that has yet to be explored. This CAREER Award will build off this exciting finding and now investigate the role of these proteins in facilitating signal transduction during camouflage. Specifically, it will explore the influence of the protein structure on tuning the range of visible color presented by chromatophore and test their role as sensors that regulate a visual feedback loop during camouflage. Through a mechanistic study that tracks the supramolecular assembly of these pigment-protein complexes in vitro, materials design rules will be developed that link the chemical composition to changes in color and pattern. Additionally, the potential of these complexes to behave as opto-electronic nodes evolved to facilitate distributed signaling will also be studied. Together, this multidisciplinary approach will provide a unified biochemical, optical, electrical, and physiological framework for adaptive coloration, providing insights into the development of next generation of adaptive and interactive materials. This work includes an integrative education and outreach component designed to maximally impact women and underrepresented minority groups from the local, University level to the broader Boston community and national scales to inspire, promote, and train the next generation of scientists and engineers through experiential learning environments beyond the classroom.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.