Molecular Design of Self-Assembling Biomimetic Polymers

这项由材料研究部生物材料项目授予加州大学欧文分校的奖项是为了创造能够指定和增强细胞活性的人造胶原蛋白，这是进一步应用如组织再生和药物输送的关键组成部分。胶原蛋白是一种自然产生的物质，可以传递特定的生化和机械信号。虽然这些特征表明这种生物聚合物是用于药物输送和再生医学的首选材料，但与抗张强度和纳米结构相关的特性可能会限制其适用性。此外，胶原基生物聚合物的合成设计和生产面临着与其他蛋白质基聚合物不相关的挑战，主要是因为迫切需要正确地对骨架进行翻译后修饰，以正确地组装、结构和功能。为了解决这些限制，该奖项将使用酵母表达系统来创造重组胶原样生物聚合物。机械强度和结构性能将通过加入不同建筑的天然交联剂进行调节。对这种支架进行的拟议功能修改将扩大材料性能的范围，包括自然无法获得的机械和结构范围。创造和研究生物响应材料的基本属性的能力对于促进再生医学、疾病治疗和生物传感器等领域的发展至关重要。通过使用酵母表达系统创建精确结构的新型类胶原聚合物，该奖项计划获得自然观察不到的机械和结构特性，同时保留胶原蛋白引发生物反应的自然能力。该项目将包括本科生和研究生参与研究。由于这种合作的跨学科性质，参与这项研究的学生将获得对不同领域之间的重要接口和协同作用的综合视角。这项拟议工作的成果也将纳入两个研究生课程。

This award to University of California Irvine by the Biomaterials program in the Division of Materials Research is to create artificial collagens that can specify and enhance cellular activity, a critical component of furthering applications such as tissue regeneration and drug delivery. Collagen is a naturally-occurring material which can impart specific biochemical and mechanical signals. While these features suggest that this biopolymer is a choice material for use in drug delivery and regenerative medicine, properties related to tensile strength and nanoscale structure can limit applicability. Furthermore, the synthetic design and production of collagen-based biopolymers has exhibited challenges not associated with other protein-based polymers, primarily because of the stringent need to correctly post-translationally modify the backbone for correct assembly, structure, and function. To address these limitations, this award will use a yeast expression system to create recombinant collagen-like biopolymers. Mechanical strength and structural properties will be modulated by incorporating natural cross-linkers of varying architectures. The proposed functional modifications upon this scaffold will expand the scope of material properties to include mechanical and structural ranges that are not naturally available.The capability to create and investigate the fundamental properties of bioresponsive materials is critical for advancing areas such as regenerative medicine, therapies for disease, and biosensors. By creating novel collagen-like polymers of precise architectures using a yeast expression system, this award is planning to obtain mechanical and structural properties not naturally observed while simultaneously preserving collagen's natural ability to elicit biological responses. The project will involve both undergraduate and graduate students in the research. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of this collaboration, students participating in this research will gain an integrated perspective of the important interfaces and synergies between diverse fields. Results from this proposed work will also be incorporated into two graduate courses.