CBET: Probing the Effects of Nanoparticle Morphology and Density in Bacterial Adhesion on Bioinspired Nanometallic Arrays.

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Dr. Marco De Jesus and his group at the University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez will adapt bioinspired replicas of naturally occurring and engineered metal nanostructures to gain a deeper understanding of how bacteria interact with nanoscale surfaces whose morphologies are smaller than microorganisms. The investigators will perform an assessment of the structural parameters which influence bacterial adhesion and colonization to devise new materials with controlled bio-adhesive properties for biomedical and environmental applications. In collaboration with the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the team will assess the performance of cellular adhesion and colonization onto metal nanoparticle arrays. Results of these studies have the potential to impact areas of national interest including the construction of advanced biosensors, medical devices, and cellular grafting applications. The project will provide interdisciplinary training and research opportunities to a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students in nanotechnology, chemical sensing, and bioanalytical chemistry. The project will involve at least two graduate and six undergraduate students.This project will improve our current understanding of how bioactive agents interact with nanomaterials at the liquid/solid interface. Specifically, in collaboration with the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Dr. De Jesus and his team will assess how surface morphology and packing density influence the ability of bacterial cells to attach and colonize nanostructured surfaces. The team is particularly interested in the impact of these properties on the sorption and effective binding of bacterial agents towards the development of scalable and transferable nanostructures. These nanostructures can be used to inhibit pathogen proliferation in medical devices and implants and to improve bacterial binding for biosensing and controlled cell adhesion applications. Using competitive binding experiments and multivariate Raman analysis, the team will identify the structural dependence of surface interactions of mixed chemical agents to elucidate surface selectivity and trends for practical quantitation of mixtures. The successful completion of this project will provide new advances toward the rational design of nanomaterials with tailored properties for specific biological applications. The project will provide research and training opportunities for a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez in nanotechnology applied to biochemical systems, with direct exposure of the graduate students to state-of-the-art facilities at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences. This project is jointly funded by the Nanoscale Interactions Program in the Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET) Division and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.