Signal-Responsive Hybrid Biomaterials with Built-in Boolean Logic

该奖项由材料研究部的生物材料项目授予克拉克森大学，旨在开发利用内置布尔逻辑制造信号响应型生物材料的新方法，这种逻辑能够切换物理特性(如光学、电、磁、润湿性、磁导率等)。当输入的化学信号被施加到内置逻辑门时。逻辑门将由与响应性聚合物载体集成的固定化酶系统组成，所述响应性聚合物载体将根据布尔逻辑响应化学输入信号，并将输出信号转移到响应性聚合物载体。氧化还原活性聚合物载体与酶体系之间的电子交换将导致聚合物的还原或氧化。聚合物载体氧化或质子化状态的预期变化将导致聚合物基质载体的组成/结构的变化，从而导致基质的特定性质的变化。混合聚合物刷将被用作最有前景的pH敏感聚合物结构，可以有效地响应酶逻辑门产生的pH变化。A)生物计算(基于酶的逻辑门)；b)酶和聚合物之间的电子/离子耦合；以及c)信号响应性聚合物(特别是混合聚合物刷)的特性，这些领域的现有知识将为进一步开发本项目中提出的对外部信号进行逻辑响应的集成生物杂交系统提供坚实的背景。该项目具有挑战性的目标是在固定化的酶系统和宿主-聚合物基质之间进行适当的相互作用，以允许有效地将酶反应转化为宿主材料的性质。拟议方法的发展将直接影响将生物技术(生物计算)的最新进展落实到具有广泛应用的工业技术上，包括生物电子学、生物纳米技术和纳米医学。拟议项目的另一个优先事项是让最聪明的高中生、本科生和研究生参与现代生物分子和化学研究。该项目将在复杂的酶系统、生物计算和表面科学领域对这些学生进行培训。学生将从这个项目的跨学科性质中受益匪浅。将作出重大努力，增加攻读科学和工程高级学位的学生数量，特别是少数族裔和女性。

This award to Clarkson University by the Biomaterials program in the Division of Materials Research is to develop new approaches for the fabrication of signal-responsive biomaterials with the built-in Boolean logic, which is capable of switching physical properties (such as optical, electrical, magnetic, wettability, permeability, etc.) upon application of the incoming chemical signals and to the built-in logic gates. The logic gates will be composed of immobilized enzyme systems integrated with responsive polymeric supports that will respond to the chemical input signals according to the Boolean logic, and transfer the output signal to the responsive polymeric support. The electron exchange between the redox-active polymeric support and the enzymatic system will result in the reduction or oxidation of the polymer. The expected changes of the oxidation or protonation states of the polymeric support will result in the changes of the composition/structure of the polymeric matrix support, thus resulting in changes of the specific properties of the matrix. Mixed polymer brushes will be used as the most promising pH-sensitive polymeric structures that can effectively respond to the pH changes generated by the enzyme logic gates. The existing knowledge in the fields such as: a) biocomputing (enzyme-based logic gates); b) electronic / ionic coupling between enzymes and polymers; and c) properties of signal-responsive polymers (specifically, mixed polymer brushes), will provide solid background for further development of the integrated biohybrid systems logically responding to external signals as proposed in this project. The challenging aim of the project is the appropriate interaction between the immobilized enzyme-systems and host-polymeric matrices to allow efficient transduction of the enzymatic reactions into the properties of the host-material. Development of the proposed approach will directly impact the implementation of recent advances in biotechnology (biocomputing) to industrial technologies with broad applications, including bioelectronics, bionanotechnology and nanomedicine. Another priority of the proposed project is the involvement of the brightest high school, undergraduate and graduate students in modern biomolecular and chemical research. The project will result in the training of these students in the areas of complex enzyme systems, biocomputing and surface science. Students will greatly benefit from the interdisciplinary nature of this project. Significant effort will be directed to increase the numbers of students, especially minorities and women, who pursue advanced degrees in science and engineering.