SBIR Phase I: Scalable Synthetic Mucin Biomaterials

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力包括再现黏液凝胶结构和功能的合成材料的商业化。大自然利用黏液来满足广泛的软材料需求，包括润滑剂、粘合剂和屏障，目前正在研究天然黏液在消费品中扮演的许多相同角色。合成粘蛋白可以影响各种市场，包括护肤、皮肤病学、医疗保健和材料行业。此外，通过更好地了解粘液在消化、呼吸和免疫系统中的作用，黏液的合成类似物可以推进科学前沿。该项目的社会影响包括国家经济效益，因为它是第一个将一种全新的仿生材料推向市场的项目。SBIR一期项目旨在解决与合成黏液生物材料的可持续可扩展性、生物相容性和可定制性相关的技术障碍。目前天然黏液的商业生产商直接从动物黏液中获取黏液生物材料。这样的实践带来了与纯度、可伸缩性和再现性相关的挑战，这阻碍了将其合并到许多预期的应用程序中。为了克服这些挑战，该项目设计了一个合成粘蛋白原型，并寻求实现以下目标：1)重新配置化学过程，以降低成本、生产时间和环境影响；Ii)了解上皮细胞对这些合成粘蛋白的耐受性；iii)证明合成粘蛋白的化学结构和材料特性之间的关系，以便它们可以定制以满足特定客户的需求。综上所述，这些努力将消除合成粘蛋白商业可行性的许多主要障碍。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。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project includes the commercialization of synthetic materials that reproduce the structures and functions of mucus gels. Nature deploys mucus to address a wide range of soft material needs, including as lubricants, adhesives, and barriers, and natural mucus is currently being investigated for filling many of these same roles in consumer products. The synthetic mucins can impact various markets including skincare, dermatology, healthcare, and materials industries. Furthermore, synthetic analogs of mucins can advance the scientific frontiers through a better understanding of the role of mucus in digestive, respiratory, and immune systems. The societal impacts of this project include the national economic benefits resulting from being the first to bring to market an entirely new class of biomimetic materials. This SBIR Phase I project proposes to address technical hurdles related to the sustainable scalability, biocompatibility, and tailorability of synthetic mucus biomaterials. The current commercial manufacturers of natural mucus directly harvest the mucin biomaterials from animal mucus. Such a practice poses challenges related to purity, scalability, and reproducibility, which preclude its incorporation into many of the envisioned applications. To overcome the challenges, this project designed a synthetic mucin prototype and seeks to achieve the following goals: i) reconfigure the chemical process to reduce costs, production time, and environmental impact; ii) understand the tolerance of epithelial cells to these synthetic mucins; and iii) demonstrate a relationship between the chemical structure and material properties of synthetic mucins so they can be tailored to meet particular customer demands. Taken together, these efforts will remove many of the major barriers to the commercial viability of synthetic mucins.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.