SGER: Excitable Vesicles - A New Platform

“SGER：可激发囊泡-一个新的平台“电势和电流是细胞交流和处理信息的基本物理性质。因此，它们有助于控制许多生理过程，包括心脏的跳动，运动和大脑功能。利用纳米技术，研究人员打算设计混合生物/非生物囊泡，模拟与许多活细胞相关的电压和电流的产生。 本课题的目的是利用蛋白质技术和人工膜工程技术，创造一种新型的功能性器件--可兴奋囊泡。 该设备将是一类新的固有智能材料的第一个化身，其中材料的“智能”来自于材料的分子组成和结构所产生的设计超分子相互作用。这个多学科项目是NSF探索性研究（SGER）计划的理想选择。它在基础科学和工程方面取得了重大进展，并为深远的技术影响提供了机会。该项目将把一些不同的生物离子通道结合到由合成仿生共聚物形成的囊泡膜中，以创造一种新的、内在活性的电自激材料。通过在分子水平上模拟生命系统中信息是如何处理的，预计EV系统将建立一个平台，用于研究与电活性细胞的大复合体相关的涌现的高阶行为的起源。 这些系统将首次展示内在的信息处理，这是其基本材料特性的组成要素。它将产生一个平台技术，用于探索物理系统中出现的复杂性，并为实现创造新的发明技术的长期愿景提供场所，例如人工神经桥的制造，心脏起搏系统的工程修复以及三维模拟生物处理器的构建。 这项技术将为创造“环境意识”材料奠定基础，这些材料随机处理来自周围环境的信息，并以复杂的方式对信息作出反应。最初的重点将是证明电动汽车技术的基本原理，动作电位的产生，电动汽车的复极，和囊泡之间的信号传播。该项目将通过对电动汽车行为的计算机模拟来促进，并可能以电动汽车的自发去电演示而达到高潮。这些任务相互支持，建立了一个平台技术，用于生产大规模的生物/非生物可兴奋囊泡的综合复合物。该项目得到了化学和运输系统1414和1415计划以及NSF纳米技术协调员特别账户的支持。

"SGER: Excitable Vesicles - A New Platform"Electric potential and current are fundamental physical properties through which cells communicate and process information. As such, they are instrumental in controlling many physiological processes, including the beating of the heart, locomotion, and brain function. Using nanotechnology, the investigator intends to engineer hybrid biotic/abiotic vesicles that mimic the production of voltages and currents associated with many living cells. It the intention of this project to use protein technology and artificial membrane engineering to create a new functional device, the Excitable Vesicle (EV). This device will be the first incarnation of a new class of intrinsically smart materials where the "intelligence" of the material emerges out of designed supra molecular interactions resulting from the molecular composition and structure of the material. This multidisciplinary project is ideal for the NSF Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) program. It provides significant advances in the basic science and engineering and offers an opportunity for far reaching technological impacts. This project will incorporate a number of different biological ion channels into membranes of vesicles formed from synthetic biomimetic copolymers to create a new, intrinsically active material that is electrically self-exciting. By mimicking how information is processed in living systems at the molecular level, it is anticipated that systems of EV's will establish a platform for investigating the genesis of emergent higher order behavior associated with large complexes of electrically active cells. These systems will for the first time demonstrate intrinsic information processing which is a constitutive element of its fundamental material properties. It will produce a platform technology for exploring emergent complexity in a physical system and provides a venue for realizing a long term vision of enabling the creation of new, inventive technologies, such as the fabrication of artificial neural bridges, engineered repair of the cardiac pacemaking system, and the construction of a 3-dimensional, analog bioprocessor. This technology will establish the foundation for creating materials that are "environmentally aware", materials that stochastically process information from its surrounding environment and respond to the information in a complex manner. Initially the focus will be on proving the fundamentals of EV technology generation of action potential, repolarization of EV's, and propagation of signals between vesicles. The project will be facilitated by computer simulations of EV behavior and will likely culminate with the demonstration of EV's that can spontaneously depolarize. These tasks support each other in establishing a platform technology for producing large-scale, integrated complexes of biotic/abiotic Excitable Vesicles. The project is supported by the Chemical and Transport Systems 1414 and 1415 programs, as well as the special accounts of the NSF Nanotechnology Coordinator.