Materials for Sensing & Actuation

描述（由申请人提供）：对可用于生物医学应用的生物材料有很高的需求，包括与疾病的治疗和管理以及新一代医疗设备和植入物的制造相关的应用。目前，数量有限的生物材料具有能够以可重复、准确、选择性和灵敏的方式发挥作用的特性，并且适合集成到可用于各种体外或体内应用的设备中（例如，生物传感器、输送系统、诊断和高通量筛选平台等）。鉴于问题的复杂性和多学科性质，成功的方法应该整合许多科学和工程学科的知识。为此，该项目的总体目标是设计受生物学启发的先进生物材料，将蛋白质识别集成到微米和纳米制造的结构中。智能生物材料基于蛋白质对特定配体的识别及其随后对它们的反应。这些蛋白质在结合特定配体后会发生构象变化，并将用于设计具有定制响应特性的生物材料。此外，通过合理设计蛋白质并采用基因工程技术（例如基因融合、定点突变等），我们将能够微调它们的动态响应。这些受生物启发的材料将被构建成新颖的纳米制造结构，以协同地使新设备/材料具有前所未有的特性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is a high need for biomaterials that can be used in biomedical applications, including those related to treatment and management of disease as well as in the fabrication of new-generation medical devices and implants. Currently, there are a limited number of biomaterials that have properties that will allow them to perform in a reproducible, accurate, selective, and sensitive manner, and that are amenable to integration into devices that can be employed in a variety of applications (e.g., biosensors, delivery systems, diagnostic and high throughput screening platforms, etc.), those being in vitro or in vivo. Given the complex and multidisciplinary nature of the problem, a successful approach should integrate knowledge from a number of scientific and engineering disciplines. To that end, the overall goal of this project is to design biologically inspired, advanced biomaterials that integrate protein recognition within micro- and nano-fabricated structures. The smart biomaterials are based on the recognition of proteins for specific ligands and their subsequent response to them. These proteins undergo conformational changes upon binding specific ligands and will be employed to engineer biomaterials with tailored response characteristics. Moreover, by rationally designing the proteins and employing genetic engineering techniques (e.g., gene fusion, site-directed mutagenesis, etc.) we will be able to fine-tune their dynamic response. These biologically inspired materials will be built into novel nanofabricated structures as to synergistically enable new devices/material with unprecedented properties.