Deconstructing and Reconstructing Oyster Cement to Create Inorganic Adhesives

非技术描述：牡蛎礁是保持沿海环境健康的最主要因素之一。这些通常有几公里长的水泥结构吸收风暴潮能量，过滤水，并将淤泥固定在适当的位置。最近的研究表明，牡蛎用一种特殊的粘合剂(或“水泥”)建造它们的珊瑚礁群落，这种粘合剂的组成与所有商业和其他生物粘合剂明显不同。考虑到其独特的组成和在潮湿环境中工作的能力，牡蛎水泥对粘合剂的作用提出了一种不同的、基本上未被探索的观点。为当前项目计划的努力将有助于了解牡蛎水泥的性质，以及如何将这项技术应用于创造独特的新型粘合剂。这些信息将被用来测试新粘固剂与骨的粘结能力，这种粘固剂的成分有点类似，很难牢固地粘结在一起。这些努力的跨学科性质将有助于推动包括海洋生物学、生物化学和材料工程在内的几个领域的发展。外展活动包括与高中生合作，在普渡大学的女性工程项目中开设实验室模块。技术描述：牡蛎礁是保持沿海环境健康的最主要因素之一。这些通常有几公里长的水泥结构吸收风暴潮能量，过滤水，并将淤泥固定在适当的位置。最近的研究表明，牡蛎是用一种主要由无机碳酸钙和少量蛋白质组成的粘合剂(或“水泥”)来构建它们的珊瑚礁群落的。这种成分与所有商用和其他生物粘合剂形成鲜明对比，这些粘合剂是由有机聚合物、多糖或蛋白质制成的。这里描述的实验首先鉴定牡蛎粘合剂的蛋白质(目标#1A)。识别出的蛋白质的表达(目标#1B)将被用于制造蛋白质-无机配方，以了解有机物和无机物之间的相互作用如何产生粘附力(目标#2)。这些结构-功能研究将有助于说明具有如此无机含量的材料如何表现出高强度粘附性。然后，这些知识将被用来检验一种假设，即骨的粘合可以通过坚硬且主要是无机的粘合剂来实现(目标3)。外展活动包括与高中生合作，在普渡大学的女性工程项目中开设实验室模块。综上所述，这项工作将展示生物学如何创造独特的材料，并指导海洋生物技术适应生物医学需求。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 Description:Oyster reefs are one of the most dominant factors for keeping coastal environments healthy. These cemented structures, often kilometers long, absorb storm surge energy, filter water, and hold silt in place. Recent insights are showing that oysters construct their reef communities with a specialized adhesive (or “cement”) whose composition is markedly different from all commercial and other biological adhesives. Given its unique composition and its ability to work in wet environments, oyster cement presents a different and largely unexplored view on what adhesives can be. Efforts planned for the current project will help to understand the nature of oyster cement and how this technology may be applied to create unique, new adhesives. Such information will be adapted here to test the ability of new cements to bond bone, which has a somewhat analogous composition and has been difficult to adhere strongly. The interdisciplinary nature of these efforts will help to advance several fields including marine biology, biochemistry, and materials engineering. Outreach activities include working with high school students for laboratory modules in the Women in Engineering Program at Purdue University. Technical Description:Oyster reefs are one of the most dominant factors for keeping coastal environments healthy. These cemented structures, often kilometers long, absorb storm surge energy, filter water, and hold silt in place. Recent insights are showing that oysters construct their reef communities with an adhesive (or “cement”) that is predominantly made of inorganic calcium carbonate and a minority of protein. Such a composition stands in stark contrast to all commercial and other biological adhesives, which are made from organic polymers, polysaccharides, or proteins. Experiments described herein begin by identifying the proteins of oyster cement (Aim #1A). Expression of the identified proteins (Aim #1B) will then be used to make protein-inorganic formulations for understanding how the interplay between organics and inorganics generates adhesion (Aim #2). These structure-function studies will help to illustrate how a material with such inorganic content can exhibit high strength adhesion. This knowledge will then be used to test a hypothesis stating that bonding of bone may be achieved with adhesives that are hard and predominantly inorganic (Aim #3). Outreach activities include working with high school students for laboratory modules in the Women in Engineering Program at Purdue University. Taken together, this work will show how biology creates unique materials and guide the adaption of marine biological technologies to biomedical needs.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.