Interactive materials: guiding rational design through biomolecular characterization

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When you think about materials, building blocks for useful objects might spring to mind, such as wood for buildings, cloth for clothing, or copper for pots. Undeniably, materials have advanced from these early natural examples to include synthetic substances such as fibreglass, nylon and steel. As our engineering capabilities and needs increase, there is ever more demand for novel materials. One example is responsive materials that respond to external stimuli, such as piezoelectrics, which change shape in response to applied electric fields, or drug capsules, which melt to release medicine in response to temperature and pH. The ability to fine-tune material properties and response at a local level is an aim of much current research, for example to make self-healing systems, or to prescribe pathways for microscopic or nanoscopic motion, which could guide drug delivery or activation to very specific locations. Our research program is designed around ideas of these interactive materials systems, looking to nature for inspiration as to how these can be accomplished, and seeking to test our understanding of these design principles by engineering such materials and devices from scratch. Collagen, the fundamental structural protein in our body, offers a prime example of a biological material exhibiting many of these properties. Assembled from individual proteins to make strong fibres, as a rope is made of many tiny threads, collagen materials template the mineralization of bone, send biological signals to direct cellular development, and impede the motion of metastasizing cancer cells. Throughout their biological lifespan, our collagen-containing connective tissues undergo processes of renewal, where collagen fibrils are broken down and rebuilt by cells living in their housing. In our research, we design and use molecular manipulation tools, such as holographic optical (laser) tweezers and a centrifuge force microscope, to examine the interplay between force, structure and breakdown of collagen. To test our understanding of operational principles, we are building new materials from biological building blocks such as DNA and peptides, with an aim of creating assembled materials of desired mechanical properties. We then test how these are selectively altered in response to molecular motors that we engineer in the lab and explore through experiment and simulation. Our research program aims to elucidate novel means by which to locally guide and control alteration of material properties at the nanoscale and microscale. It offers outstanding interdisciplinary training opportunities for HQP through its integration of cutting-edge techniques from a range of scientific disciplines and by emphasizing the development of communication skills to foster broad scientific literacy.