NER: Self-Coordinating Bacterial Flagella as Actuators in Engineered Fluidic Systems

项目编号：cbs -0508349项目负责人：Breuer， Kenneth s.联合院校：布朗大学项目名称：NER：自协调细菌鞭毛作为工程流体系统的致动器该项目资助一项探索性研究项目，以扩展最近的初步实验结果，该实验结果证明了在实际微流体系统中使用纳米级生物分子马达（细菌鞭毛马达）作为流体致动器（泵和混合器）。该研究项目将证明基于细菌鞭毛集体旋转的流体装置是可行的，并将阐明可用于解释和优化其合作行为的关键概念。将采用各种创新的实验技术来确定观察到协调流体运动（泵送和混合）可以从数百万个独立纳米级致动器的自组织中产生的潜在物理原理。研究了纳米级执行器对几何、结构和流体动力学的依赖性，以及它们的协同行为如何依赖于温度和几何等全局条件。这个多尺度系统的动力学模型将被开发来描述这种行为。本基金研究的基本科学问题包括(a)在工程系统中使用生物纳米级结构，(b)允许数千个纳米级组件在数千倍大（毫米）的尺度上自组织的物理学，从而导致全局流体运动和产生有用的机械功，以及(c)这些系统在局部和全局参数上的行为。长期以来，人们一直需要基于生物分子马达的紧凑、有机驱动的流体驱动器。这笔拨款将使人们能够批判性地理解这些系统的潜在机制、能力和局限性，并为未来的科学和工程发展奠定基础。除了对基础科学的贡献之外，该项目还将帮助培养生物物理学、生物机械工程等多学科领域的科学家和工程师，以及工程、生物学和物理学之间的现代实验技术。构建这些纳米机器的能力将允许构建紧凑和自供电的流体系统，并且也将在各种各样的芯片实验室和纳米级机械应用中相关。PI将参加布朗大学领导联盟计划，并将通过夏季研究早期识别计划招募学生进行夏季工作。

Proposal Number: CTS-0508349Principal Investigator: Breuer, Kenneth S.Affiliation: Brown UniversityProposal Title: NER: Self-Coordinating Bacterial Flagella as Actuators in Engineered Fluidic SystemsThis grant is to fund an exploratory research program to expand recent preliminary experimental results that demonstrate the use of nanoscale biomolecular motors (bacterial flagellar motors) as fluidic actuators (pumps and mixers) in practical microfluidic systems. This research program will demonstrate that fluidic devices based on the collective rotation of bacterial flagella are feasible and will illustrate key concepts that can be used to explain and optimize their cooperative behavior. A variety of innovative experimental techniques will be employed to determine the underlying physics behind the observation that coordinated fluid motion (pumping and mixing) can arise from the self-organization of millions of independent nanoscale actuators. The dependence on the geometry, structural and fluid dynamics of the nanoscale acutators will be investigated as well how their coorperative behavior depends on global conditions such as temperature and geometry. Models for the dynamics of this multi-scale system will be developed to describe this behavior. The fundamental scientific issues addressed in this grant include (a) The use of biological nanoscale structures in engineered systems, (b) the physics that allow thousands of nanometer-scale components to self-organize over scales thousands of times larger (millimeters) resulting in global fluid motion and the generation of useful mechanical work and (c) the behavior of such systems on local and global parameters. There has been a longstanding need for compact, organically-powered fluidic actuators that are based on biomolecular motors. This grant will enable critical understanding of the underlying mechanisms, the capabilities and limitations of these systems and to lay the groundwork for future scientific and engineering development. Beyond the contributions to basic science, the program will also help train scientists and engineers in the multidisciplinary field of biophysics, bio-mechanical engineering and in modern experimental techniques at the interface between engineering, biology and physics. The ability to build these nanomachines will allow the construction of compact and self-powered fluid systems and will be also be relevant in a wide variety of lab on a chip and nanoscale mechanical applications. The PI will participate in the Brown University Leadership Alliance program and will recruit students for summer work via the Summer Research Early Identification Program.