LEAPS-MPS: CAS:Stimuli-Responsive Biodegradable Polymeric Nanomaterials for Biomedical Applications

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。在该项目中，隋炳林教授和他的学生将致力于开发一系列刺激反应性、生物相容性和可生物降解的聚合物和聚合物基纳米材料，这些材料可以广泛应用于生物和医学领域。随着纳米技术的迅速发展，纳米尺度的生物纳米材料在体内无法被清除，且在体内积累容易引起慢性全身毒性，因此生物安全性和可持续性成为生物纳米材料研究的两个关键问题。隋教授将开发的新型聚合物由含有生物可切割化学键的可生物降解聚合物链组成。因此，在生物和生理环境中，聚合物和聚合物基纳米材料会逐渐分解，最终在体内变成无毒的小分子，没有生物安全性和可持续性问题。Sui教授将利用新材料的癌症相关生物医学应用来提高学生对人类健康问题的认识，并让研究生和本科生以及来自北达科他州部落学院的未被充分代表的美洲原住民学生参与研究。Sui教授建议解决纳米材料的挑战，这些挑战目前阻碍了大多数纳米尺度材料在生物医学领域的应用，特别是在生物成像和纳米医学领域。为此，新的聚合物由可生物降解的骨架组成，其中包含生物可切割的化学键和刺激响应和自牺牲的侧链，赋予聚合物纳米系统诊断、治疗和遗传试剂的共价偶联能力；以最大的释药效率可控无迹释放缀合剂；在释放装载的物质后，在体内分解成无毒的小分子，不会引起长期的生物安全和可持续性问题。与传统医学方法相比，这些材料的开发有望推动生物成像和纳米医学的发展，使其成为一种生物安全、更可靠、更有效的技术，用于疾病的诊断、预防和治疗。此外，提出的解决关键问题的战略将为开发越来越多的生物安全和可持续的聚合物和纳米材料铺平道路。隋教授计划让研究生和本科生，特别是在STEM领域未被充分代表的少数民族学生，以及高中生参与该项目，以扩大研究和参与导向的外展活动的融合。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。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). In this project, funded by the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate and housed in the Chemistry Division, Professor Binglin Sui and his students will work to develop a series of stimuli-responsive, biocompatible and biodegradable polymers and polymer-based nanomaterials that can be extensively utilized in the biological and medical worlds. Biosafety and sustainability have become two critical issues of bio-oriented nanomaterials with the rapid development of nanotechnology, resulting from the fact that those materials with nanoscale sizes could not be eliminated from the body and their accumulation in the body is likely to induce chronic systemic toxicities. The new polymers that Prof. Sui will develop consist of biodegradable polymer chains containing bio-cleavable chemical bonds. Therefore, in biological and physiological environments, the polymers and polymer-based nanomaterials will gradually break down and eventually turn into nontoxic small molecules in the body, devoid of biosafety and sustainability concerns. Prof. Sui will use cancer-related biomedical applications of the new materials to promote students’ awareness of human health issues and to get graduate and undergraduate students as well as the underrepresented Native American students from tribal colleges in North Dakota engaged in the research. Prof. Sui proposes to address the challenges of nanomaterials that are currently preventing the majority of materials with nanoscale sizes from biomedical applications, especially for bioimaging and nanomedicine. To that end, the new polymers are composed of biodegradable backbones containing bio-cleavable chemical bonds and stimuli-responsive and self-immolative side chains, bestowing the polymeric nanosystems capabilities of covalent conjugation of diagnostic, therapeutic, and genetic agents; controllable traceless-release of the conjugated agents on demand with maximal agent-releasing efficiency; and decomposition into nontoxic small molecules in the body after liberating loaded cargos, inducing no long-term concerns of biosafety and sustainability. The development of such materials expects to advance the evolution of bioimaging and nanomedicine into a biosafe, more reliable, and more efficient technique compared to traditional medicinal methods for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases. Furthermore, the proposed strategy for solving the critical issues will pave the way for the development of more and more biosafe and sustainable polymers and nanomaterials. Prof. Sui plans to involve graduate and undergraduate students, especially underrepresented minority students in STEM fields, as well as high school students in the project to broaden the integration of research and participation-oriented outreach activities.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.