CAREER: Hybrid Bio-Synthetic Polymers: Controlling Structure and Function on Nanometer Scales in Genetically Engineered Polymers Enhanced with Synthetic Blocks.

在纳米尺度上控制和操纵分子构件是新兴纳米技术领域的核心挑战。 大自然通过合成大量精确拷贝的高分子量蛋白质分子来完成这一任务，这些蛋白质分子在其氨基酸单体的一级序列中编码了纳米级的折叠和功能。 因此，蛋白质合成的细胞装置特别适合于制造具有纳米尺度控制的性质的巨大分子。 然而，天然材料也有许多缺点，既有可用的化学结构单元，也有线性、逐步蛋白质生物合成的有限灵活性。 因此，精确的天然生物合成过程与各种非天然合成嵌段的有利属性的组合可以用于产生具有用纯合成或天然的生物素不可能获得的性质的材料。 PI提出了一项研究计划，旨在探索由基因工程多肽（蛋白质聚合物）与合成大分子结构单元（树突和/或常规聚合物）结合组成的新型材料的合成和应用。 本研究的两个具体目标是：（1）开发一种合成具有纳米尺度长度和直径的单分散圆柱形分子的方法，并控制极性和非极性表面化学的分布，可用作纳米级分子有序薄膜和单层的构建单元;（2）合成和加工由分散在合成聚合物基质中的有序的纳米尺寸的多肽嵌段组成的复合材料，它将具有与天然拖丝蜘蛛丝纤维相当或更好的高机械强度和韧性。PI将通过旨在整合生物学和材料科学教育的教学计划来补充他的跨学科研究工作。 PI的最终目标是教育下一代的科学家和工程师能够在两个学科之间的接口工作。 这将通过在生物学和聚合物科学之间的接口设计研究项目来实现，并适合本科生和研究生的研究。 此外，PI将开发三个新的本科材料科学课程，将在生物材料的背景下向工程专业的学生介绍生命科学的概念和技术。 最终，拟议的研究和培训计划将促进两个学科之间的思想和技术的流动。 然后，这将导致发现用于合成具有接近天然生物聚合物的功能特性的多样性的材料的新方法，并且具有适合于在纳米级科学和工程的许多领域中应用的稳定性和加工特性。

Controlling and manipulating molecular building blocks on a nanometer scale is the central challenge of the emerging field of nanotechnology. Nature accomplishes this task by synthesizing numerous exact copies of high molecular weight protein molecules, with folding and function on nanometer scale encoded in the primary sequence of their amino acid monomers. Thus, the cellular apparatus of protein synthesis is uniquely suited for making giant molecules with properties controlled on a nanometer scales. However, natural materials also have many shortcomings, both in terms of the available chemical building blocks, as well as the limited flexibility of the linear, step-wise protein biosynthesis. Thus, combination of the precise natural biosynthetic process with favorable attributes of diverse unnatural synthetic blocks could be used to create materials with properties impossible to obtain with purely synthetic or natural synthons. The PI propses a research program aimed at exploring the synthesis and applications of novel materials consisting of genetically engineered polypeptides (protein polymers) conjugated with synthetic macromolecular building blocks: dendrons and/or conventional polymers. Two specific aims will be addressed in the proposed research: (1) development of a synthetic route towards monodisperse cylindrical molecules with nanometer-scale length and diameter, and controlled distribution of polar and apolar surface chemistries, that can be used as building blocks for thin films and monolayers with nanoscale molecular ordering; (2) synthesis and processing of composites consisting of ordered, nanometer-sized polypeptide blocks dispersed in a synthetic polymer matrix, that will have high mechanical strength and toughness comparable to or better than those of the natural dragline spider silk fibers.%%%The PI will complement his interdisciplinary research effort with a teaching program designed to integrate the biology and materials science education. The PI's ultimate aim is to educate the next generation of sscientists and engeineers capable of working at the interface between the two disciplines. This will be realized by designing research projects at the interface between biology and polymers science and suitable for both undergraduate and graduate research. Furthermore, the PI will develop three new undergraduate materials science classes that will introduce concepts and techniques of life sciences to engineering students in the context of biomaterials. Ultimately, the proposed research and training program will facilitate the flow of ideas and techniques between the two disciplines. This will then lead to the discovery of new methods for synthesis of materials with diversity of functional properties approaching those of natural biopolymers, and having stability and processing characteristics suitable for application in many areas of nanoscale science and engineering.