CAREER: Collective hydrodynamics within viscous interfaces: activity and assembly in membranes and monolayers

嵌入两种流体之间界面的微观颗粒的协同运动是许多生物和工程过程的核心。这些动力学支配着细胞膜中蛋白质的运动或肺衬里上呼吸颗粒物的运动，并影响着模拟天然细胞的合成药物递送载体的设计。该奖项将支持新模型和模拟的开发，以量化和设计这些复杂的膜状组件。该项目将描述真实形状的粒子的活动和动力学，开发精确的模拟以有效地表征大规模聚集体，并揭示设计粒子之间相互作用的新策略。在一个紧密整合的教育计划中，该项目将开发一个队列计划，专门针对来自当地社区学院的代表性不足的转学生的专业成功和STEM参与，通过为期一年的指导和培训。作为该计划的一部分，研究人员和学员将为教师和学生开发和传播开源，互动，教学模块，旨在促进编码和工程方法的广泛参与，并激发更具竞争力的未来STEM劳动力。该奖项的主要目标是在广泛的生物和仿生应用中，牢固地建立大规模流体动力学相互作用对粘性界面内颗粒组织的作用。虽然孤立的，被动的粒子在牛顿界面的运输是建立良好的，一个严格的平台，以捕捉大规模的流体动力学相互作用的现实粒子形状在复杂的拥挤的单层或膜，代表了许多应用程序仍然缺乏。真实的系统由于非牛顿表面流变学、分子马达和人工自推进界面胶体的活性性质以及膜锚和合成纳米棒的延伸或可变形结构而特别具有挑战性。该项目将使用渐近理论来系统地评估各种现实非牛顿界面中的对相互作用，开发有效的计算方法来捕获大规模表面流体动力学，将这些见解和工具扩展到复杂的颗粒形状和系统几何形状，并开发介观平均场模型来探索大规模结构，稳定性和模式。总之，在这个项目中开发的分析和数值工具将广泛适用于双层，单层，生物膜和聚合物膜上的新型自组装材料的合理和创造性设计，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

The cooperative movement of microscopic particles embedded in the interface between two fluids is central to many biological and engineering processes. These dynamics govern the motion of proteins in cell membranes or respiratory particulate matter on lung linings and in-fluence the design of synthetic drug delivery vehicles that mimic natural cells. This award will support the development of new models and simulations to quantify and engineer these complex membrane-like assemblies. This project will describe the activity and dynamics of particles of realistic shapes, develop accurate simulations to efficiently characterize large-scale aggregates, and reveal novel strategies to engineer interactions between particles. In a tightly integrated education plan, this project will develop a cohort program specifically targeting the professional success and STEM participation of underrepresented transfer students from local community colleges via year-long mentorship and training. As part of this program, researchers and trainees will develop and disseminate open-source, interactive, instruction modules for teachers and students, aimed at promoting broad engagement with coding and engineering methods and inspiring a more competitive future STEM workforce. The main goal of this award is to firmly establish the role of large-scale hydrodynamic interactions on particle organization within viscous interfaces in a broad class of biological and biomimetic applications. While the transport of isolated, passive particles in Newtonian interfaces is well established, a rigorous platform to capture large-scale hydrodynamic interactions of realistic particle shapes in complex crowded monolayers or membranes that represent many applications is still lacking. Real systems are particularly challenging due to non-Newtonian surface rheology, the active nature of molecular motors and artificial self-propelled interfacial colloids, and the extended or deformable structure of membrane anchors and synthetic nano-rods. This project will use asymptotic theory to systematically evaluate pair interactions in a wide range of realistic non-Newtonian interfaces, develop efficient computational methods to capture large-scale surface hydrodynamics, extend these insights and tools to complex particle shape and system geometries, and develop mesoscopic mean-field models to explore large-scale structure, stability, and patterns. Put together, the analytical and numerical tools developed in this project will be broadly applicable in the rational and creative design of novel self-assembled materials on bilayers, monolayers, biofilms, and polymer membranes, going beyond the length scales and limitations of traditional interfacial engineering.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.