Iterative design of metallic nanoparticles towards the discovery of nano-bio interactions

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Background: The integration of nanomaterials has transformed key applications in a multitude of scientific fields, such as energy, environmental technologies, water, therapeutics, and chemical processing. Gold nanoparticles are at the center of many of these applications. Conventionally, the physical properties of gold nanoparticles, such as size and shape, are engineered to alter properties and enhance performance. In the past 5 years, our lab has synthesized star-shaped gold nanoparticles with unique surface properties and showed that understanding how nanoparticle interact with biological membranes can lead to the development of novel sensors.  The designs of materials have been focusing on a single metal element, gold. Recent advances in nanomaterials engineering have led to the synthesis of nanostructures with metallic nanoclusters and showed enormous potential to improve efficiencies in terms of selectivity to target molecules. This proposal aims to discover the interactions between metallic NPs and microbial cells beyond the use of Au structures.  Objectives and Scientific Approaches: The long-term objective of the Discovery Grant is to drive an active research program to accelerate the discovery of design-dependent interactions of metallic NPs with microorganisms. The short-term objectives are 1) to investigate the interactions of alloy NPs with microorganisms and 2) to develop an iterative design of metallic nanoparticles towards biorthogonality. The program will dive into the mechanistic understanding of how to utilize the metallic nanoparticles for the detection of microbial cells, fostering the development of a more versatile platform for pathogen identification, and will, in turn, unlock new directions for the development of more highly resolved nanomaterial-based sensors. Novelty and significance: The work will the first comprehensive investigation of alloy metals to generate a "fingerprint"-like interactions for the sensing of biologicals and structures. The discoveries made from the iterative design can be extended to accelerate the discovery of new materials and pathogen sensors. The use of iterative design approach in the proposed work may establish a paradigm in which the use of progressive design reveals fundamental insight into material properties and guides systems design and engineering across a number of disciplines. This research program will also provide a supportive training environment for highly qualified personnel (HQP) including 2 Ph.D., 2 MASc, and 6 MEng students. The program would enable training of HQP in the multidisciplinary fields of biomaterials, nanotechnology, metallic structures, and pathogen sensing and detection, and have opportunities to develop transferable skills for high demand jobs in the advanced materials and manufacturing industry as well as in the biotechnology and healthcare industry.