Selective Polymers For Protein Separations: Investigation of Novel Template Polymerization Techniques

成本效益高的亲和分离的发展最终将需要昂贵和不稳定的生物亲和配体被小的化学模拟物所取代。首席研究人员(PI)已经开始开发一类非常有前途的合成材料，这些材料对单个蛋白质具有高度的选择性。这些新的亲和试剂是含有金属离子阵列的聚合物，这些金属离子阵列结合了目标蛋白质表面互补的功能基团阵列。决定蛋白质分离识别选择性的新特征是将聚合物中金属离子(铜)的间距与蛋白质表面金属配位氨基酸残基(组氨酸)的间距相匹配。这项研究的目标是开发水性模板聚合单体和技术，以制备用于蛋白质分离的亲和聚合物，并确定决定所得材料对蛋白质结合的选择性和强度的关键物理和化学性质。将研究三种类型的材料：i)大孔聚合物，ii)用于包裹多孔珠或其他表面的薄层聚合物，以及iii)脂泡。这项研究有望产生一种通用的方法来合成稳定和多功能的选择性聚合物，这些聚合物非常适合于经济高效的大规模蛋白质纯化。

The development of cost-effective affinity separations will eventually require that expensive and labile biological affinity ligands be replaced by small chemical mimics. The Principal Investigators (PIs) have begun to develop a very promising new class of synthetic materials that are highly selective for individual proteins. These new affinity reagents are polymers which contain arrays of metal ions that bind complementary arrays of functional groups on the surface of target proteins. The novel feature that determines the selectivity of recognition of protein separations is to match the spacing of metal ions (copper) in the polymer to the spacing of metal-coordinating amino acid residues (histidine) on the protein surface. The goal of this research is to develop aqueous template polymerization monomers and techniques in order to prepare affinity polymers for protein separations and to identify the key physical and chemical properties that dictate the selectivity and strength of protein binding by the resulting materials. Three types of materials will be investigated: i) macroporous polymers, ii) thin layers of polymers that are used to coat porous beads or other surfaces, and iii) lipid vesicles. This research promises to yield a generic method for synthesizing stable and versatile selective polymers that are well-suited to cost-effective, large-scale protein purification.