NER: Investigation and Characterization of Adsorption of Self Assembling Amyloid Beta Protein Aggregates on Gold Nanoparticles Embedded in a Sol-Gel Thin Film

我们建议研究应用金纳米粒子作为一种有效的标记物的核形成的淀粉样蛋白b-肽（Ab），这是阿尔茨海默氏病的标志。 本项目的目标是建立一种诊断方法，将纳米颗粒的大小与聚集过程中产生的组装抗体的大小联系起来。 目的是1）当金纳米颗粒与Ab共存时，编译金纳米颗粒的光谱表征，2）找到Ab聚集体在二氧化硅溶胶-凝胶基质中以薄膜形式吸附或自组装的指示。 当蛋白质发生聚集时，光散射将强烈增强。 因此，我们将采用表面反射漫反射光谱技术，这是非常适合于测量的散射表面积的吸收光谱信息。 光谱信息将与单独的金纳米颗粒复合物的吸收信息相关，并且光谱位移用于估计聚集尺寸。 作为拟议的研究的更广泛的影响，本研究可能导致吸附在金纳米粒子上的蛋白质构象的相关方案，这可用于建立蛋白质聚集的标准诊断方法。 通过这个研究项目，三名本科生将有机会从事纳米粒子科学的应用，他们有机会使用高度专业化的仪器，如原子力显微镜在纳米材料和纳米电子学先进技术中心，州立大学的纽约在奥尔巴尼。

We propose to investigate the application of gold nanoparticles as an effective marker for nuclei formation of amyloid b-peptides (Ab), which is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. The goal of this project is to establish a diagnostic method to relate the size of nanoparticles with the size of the assembled Ab arising from the aggregation process. The objectives are 1) to compile a spectroscopic characterization of gold nanoparticles when they coexist with Ab, 2) to find an indication of adsorption or self-assembly of Ab aggregates in a silica sol-gel matrix in thin film form. As aggregation of the protein takes place, light scattering will be strongly enhanced. Thus, we will adopt a surface reflectance diffuse spectroscopy technique, which is well suited for measuring the absorption spectroscopic information of the scattering surface area. The spectroscopic information will be correlated with the absorption information of gold nanoparticle complexes alone, and the spectral shift used for an estimation of the aggregation size. As a broader impact of the proposed study, the present study may result in a correlation scheme for protein conformation adsorbed on gold nanoparticles, which could be used to establish a standard diagnostic methodology for a protein aggregation. Through this research project, three undergraduate students will have an opportunity to be engaged in an application of nanopartcile science and they have an opportunity to use highly specialized instruments, such as an Atomic Force Microscope at the Center for Advanced Technology in Nanomaterials and Nanoelectronics, State University of New York at Albany.