NER: Dynamic Behavior of Ligand-Receptor Interactions in Living Cells on the Nanoscale

该研究项目由综合生物学和神经科学部支持，将由伊利诺伊理工学院的Rong Wang博士，Nickolas Menhart博士及其学生进行。 该研究的目标是开发一种新型方法，可以实时研究活细胞环境中单个配体-受体对（典型尺寸为几纳米）的动态行为。 这种方法的本质是引导原子力显微镜（AFM）的尖端到所需的受体蛋白，而不管细胞膜表面的粗糙度和复杂性。 除了在生理条件下在亚分子水平上对生物分子进行成像外，还可以在纳米尺度上阐明生物识别事件的动态和动力学过程。 这项研究将涉及新的实验，旨在对自然环境中单个配体-受体相互作用进行基础研究。这将为细胞内的生物活性和分子通讯提供分子基础。 其中一个有前途的应用是阐明疫苗或药物靶向病变细胞中特定的细胞表面蛋白或生长细胞中的激活剂靶点。 这种革命性的方法显示出强大的承诺，以提升生物科学中的分子功能的基本理解的发展到一个全新的水平，并将刺激在生物和生物启发的系统，其中纳米结构发挥了重要作用的研究进展。

This research project, supported by the Division of Integrative Biology and Neuroscience, will be carried out by Dr. Rong Wang, Dr. Nickolas Menhart and their students at the Illinois Institute of Technology. The target of the research is to develop a novel approach that allows a real-time study of the dynamic behavior of individual ligand-receptor pairs (typical size of several nanometers) in the living cell environment. The essence of this approach is to guide the tip of the atomic force microscope (AFM) to desired receptor proteins regardless of the roughness and complexity on the cell membrane surface. Besides imaging of biomolecules at the submolecular level under physiological conditions, dynamic and kinetic processes of the biorecognition events can be clarified on the nanoscale. The research will involve novel experiments aimed at fundamental studies of single ligand-receptor interaction in the natural environment. This will provide the molecular basis for biological activities and molecular communications within cells. One of the promising applications is to elucidate a vaccine or drug target at the particular cell-surface protein in a diseased cell or an activator target in a growth cell. This revolutionary approach shows strong promise to elevate the development of the fundamental understanding of molecular functions in bioscience to an entirely new level, and will stimulate progress in the study of biological and biologically inspired systems in which nanostructures play an important role.