Interactive materials: guiding rational design through biomolecular characterization

交互式材料：通过生物分子表征指导合理设计

• 批准号: RGPIN-2015-05545
• 负责人: Forde, Nancy
• 金额: $ 3.5万
• 依托单位: Simon Fraser University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=689695
• 关键词: Interactive; materials; guiding; rational; design

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.**

当你想到材料的时候，有用物品的积木可能会出现在你的脑海里，比如建造房屋的木头，做衣服的布，或者做锅的铜。不可否认，材料已经从这些早期的自然例子发展到包括合成物质，如玻璃纤维、尼龙和钢。随着我们的工程能力和需求的增加，对新型材料的需求也越来越大。其中一个例子是对外部刺激做出反应的响应材料，比如压电材料，它会根据外加电场改变形状，或者药物胶囊，它会根据温度和ph值融化释放药物。在局部水平上微调材料特性和反应的能力是当前许多研究的目标，例如制造自我修复系统，或规定微观或纳米级运动的途径。这可以引导药物递送或激活到非常特定的位置。******我们的研究项目是围绕这些互动材料系统的想法设计的，从大自然中寻找灵感，如何完成这些设计，并试图通过从头开始设计这些材料和设备来测试我们对这些设计原则的理解。******胶原蛋白，我们身体的基本结构蛋白，提供了一个典型的例子，展示了许多这些特性的生物材料。胶原蛋白材料由单个蛋白质组装而成，就像绳子由许多细线组成一样，胶原蛋白材料为骨骼的矿化提供模板，发送生物信号来指导细胞发育，并阻止癌细胞转移的运动。在它们的整个生物寿命中，我们含有胶原蛋白的结缔组织经历了更新的过程，胶原原纤维被生活在其外壳中的细胞分解和重建。在我们的研究中，我们设计并使用分子操作工具，如全息光学（激光）镊子和离心力显微镜，来研究力，结构和胶原蛋白分解之间的相互作用。******为了测试我们对操作原理的理解，我们正在从DNA和肽等生物构建块构建新材料，目的是创建具有所需机械性能的组装材料。然后，我们测试这些是如何选择性地改变，以响应我们在实验室中设计的分子马达，并通过实验和模拟来探索。******我们的研究计划旨在阐明在纳米尺度和微尺度上局部引导和控制材料性质变化的新方法。它通过整合来自一系列科学学科的前沿技术，并强调沟通技巧的发展，以培养广泛的科学素养，为HQP提供杰出的跨学科培训机会