Chemical Synthesis of Water-Soluble Nanoscale Structures

在美国国家科学基金会有机和大分子化学项目的支持下，加州大学欧文分校化学系的James Nowick教授将提供一种简单的自下而上的方法来创建基于多肽的水溶性纳米级三维结构。目标包括直径1.9纳米的“球体”、边长2.0纳米的“四面体”和边长2.3纳米的“立方体”。该结构基于一个纳米级氨基酸家族，Abc2K，由首席研究员开发。这些氨基酸已经被用来制造长度达10纳米的水溶性分子棒，以及大小达3纳米的水溶性环、三角形和平行四边形。这些氨基酸将与三苯基甲烷桥头堡基团结合，生成具有明确结构的双环、四环和六环三维结构。首席研究员还将开发一种新的动力学分辨率策略来解决与这些结构的合成相关的立体化学问题。核磁共振波谱学结合分子模型和可能的x射线晶体学将用于阐明这些纳米级三维分子的结构特征。凭借这一奖项，Nowick教授将证明肽是非常容易合成和处理的，使它们能够被广泛的研究人员使用，只需要一些简单的合成设备，高效液相色谱，也许还有ESI质谱仪。水溶性结构尤其适合生物应用，这无疑是纳米技术未来的一个重要方向。这些结构的发展将填补具有明确几何形状的纳米级结构中很大程度上缺失的领域，例如，在纳米尺度上所有三个维度上的水溶性肽结构。参与该项目的本科生、研究生和博士后将接受培训，在实验室进行前沿研究，并学会通过在研讨会、会议和出版物上展示他们的研究成果，有效地与他人交流。参加该项目的学生将继续在制药或生物技术行业或学术界工作，从而为美国的科学事业和经济做出贡献。所开发的纳米尺度结构可能会引起参与纳米技术的科学家和工程师的广泛兴趣。将通过出版物和研讨会传播关于这些结构的信息，并酌情与其他研究人员分享材料。诺威克教授将继续经营UCI化学推广计划，这是他在1992年创建的，将科学的兴奋带给K-12学生，并帮助接触代表性不足的群体的学生。该项目将本科生、研究生和博士后学生送到K-12学校进行演讲，其中包括生动的演示和引人入胜的讨论。纳米尺度结构的描述，以及化学在纳米技术中的相关作用，将被纳入讨论。

With support from the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program at the National Science Foundation for this new award, Professor James Nowick, of the Department of Chemistry at University of California- Irvine, will provide a facile bottom-up approach to the creation of water-soluble nanometer scale three-dimensional structures that are based on peptides. Targets include a "sphere", 1.9 nm in diameter, a "tetrahedron", 2.0 nm on edge, and a "cube", 2.3 nm on edge. The structures are based on a family of nanometer-scale amino acids, Abc2K, developed by the principal investigator. These amino acids have already been used to create water-soluble molecular rods up to 10 nanometers in length and water-soluble rings, triangles, and parallelograms up to 3 nanometers in size. These amino acids will be combined with triphenylmethane bridgehead groups to generate bi-, tetra- and hexacyclic three-dimensional structures with well-defined architectures. The principal investigator will also develop a novel kinetic resolution strategy to solve stereochemical problems associated with the syntheses of these structures. NMR spectroscopy in conjunction with molecular modeling and possibly X-ray crystallography will be used to elucidate structural features of these nanometer-scale three-dimensional molecules.With this award, Professor Nowick will demonstrate that peptides are exceptionally easy to synthesize and handle, making them accessible to a wide range of researchers with only access to some simple synthesis equipment, an HPLC, and perhaps an ESI mass spectrometer. Water-soluble structures are especially well suited to biological applications, which certainly represents an important future direction of nanotechnology. The development of these structures will fill an area that is largely missing among nanoscale structures with well-defined geometries, for example, water-soluble peptide structures on a nanometer scale in all three dimensions. Undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students working on this project will be trained to perform cutting-edge research in the laboratory and will also learn to effectively communicate their results to others by presenting their work in seminars, at meetings, and through publication. Students trained on the project will go on to careers in the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry, or academia, and will thus contribute to the US scientific endeavor and the economy. The nanometer-scale structures that are developed will likely be of widespread interest among scientists and engineers involved in nanotechnology. Information will be disseminated on these structures through publication and seminars and materials will be shared with other researchers where appropriate. Professor Nowick will continue to run the UCI Chemistry Outreach Program, which he created in 1992 to bring the excitement of science to K-12 students and to help reach students in underrepresented groups. The program sends undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students to K-12 schools to make presentations that include lively demonstrations and engaging discussion. Descriptions of the nanometer-scale scale structures, and the associated role of chemistry in nanotechnology, will be incorporated into the discussion.