LYSOZYME + METAL ATOM

这个子项目是利用资源的许多研究子项目之一。 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。对子项目的主要支持 子项目的首席调查员可能是由其他来源提供的， 包括美国国立卫生研究院的其他来源。为子项目列出的总成本可能 表示该子项目使用的中心基础设施的估计数量， 不是由NCRR赠款提供给次级项目或次级项目工作人员的直接资金。 纳米材料在科学和应用领域都发挥着非常重要的作用。虽然纳米科学已经取得了很大的进展，但纳米材料的生长研究仍然是一个巨大的挑战。在本项目中，我们使用溶菌酶单晶来减缓金属纳米颗粒的生长，从而在分子水平上研究它们的生长动力学。溶菌酶之所以被选择用于这个项目，是因为它不仅容易结晶，而且具有独特的表面-暴露在15位的组氨酸作为金属离子的特定结合部位。我们的初步结果表明，溶菌酶晶体可以减缓反应，因此我们可以通过X射线结晶学获得溶菌酶与金属离子相互作用的快照。借助其他技术(如透射电子显微镜)，我们将阐明金属纳米颗粒在溶菌酶晶体中生长的反应机理，这可能对生物纳米杂化材料的制备、生物矿化、催化、光学和等离子体器件以及传感具有重要意义。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. Nano-scaled materials play a very important role in both scientific and applied areas. Though much progress has been made in nano-science, the investigation of nanomaterials' growth is still great challenge. In this project, we are using single crystals of lysozyme to slow down the growth of metal nanoparticles and thus study their growth kinetics at the molecular level. Lysozyme was chosen for this project because it not only can be readily crystallized, but also has a unique surface-exposed His at position 15 as a specific binding site for metal ions. Our primary results showed that lysozyme crystals could slow the reaction and thus we could get the snapshots of the interactions between lysozyme and the metal ions by X-ray crystallography. With the help of other techniques (such as transmission electron microscopy), we will elucidate the reaction mechanism of metal nanoparticles' growth within the lysozyme crystals, which might have implications in fabrication of bio-nano hybrid materials, biomineralization, catalysis, optical and plasmonic devices, and sensing.