CAREER: Engineering Materials with Biological Activity and Structural Hierarchy

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。本学院早期职业发展（Career）奖的研究目标是发展一种新的胶体科学，从而产生具有结构层次和生物功能的材料。近五千年来，人们已经知道，水中小分子的自发自组装与两亲分子有关，两亲分子部分是油性的，部分是水溶性的。该项目将展示完全水溶性分子的自组装，并将使用这些组装作为模板来支持涂覆在组装上的聚合物的凝胶形成。这种模板化合成方法将产生一类新的结构，包括双连续水凝胶、连接水壳、微胶囊和纳米分子棒。由于合成过程中不涉及可使蛋白质变性的两亲性分子或表面活性剂分子，因此蛋白质将共聚成具有首选空间位置并保留酶活性的凝胶材料。这些结构可以作为支持的生物催化剂，具有模拟活组织的潜力。研究中的新科学将与多个层次的教育相结合，包括高中毕业生、高中教师、本科生（本奖项约7%的资金将用于聘请本科生研究人员）、研究生和博士后研究人员。从这项研究中获得的知识将推动制药和生物制药行业开发的小分子药物和修饰蛋白质药物。水凝胶材料可以涂覆在广泛的材料上，包括用于医疗器械的材料，以减少患者的生物污染和感染的发生。这种新型水凝胶也有潜力作为可生物降解的组织再生植入物。由于该项目阐明了自组装的新基本原理，该研究有可能改变胶体和界面科学的格局。与教学相结合，将生成实验室手册和网页。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The research objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award is to develop a new kind of colloidal science that will result in materials with structural hierarchy and biological functions. For nearly five thousand years, spontaneous self-assembly of small molecules in water has been known to be involved with amphiphilic molecules, which are part oily and part water-soluble. This project will demonstrate the self-assembly of entirely water-soluble molecules, and will use these assemblies as templates to support gel formation of polymers coated on the assemblies. This approach, templated synthesis, will result in a new class of structures, including bicontinuous hydrogels, connected hydroshells, microcapsules and nano-molecular rods. Because the synthesis does not involve amphiphilic or surfactant molecules that can denature proteins, proteins will be copolymerized into the gel materials with preferred spatial location and with retained enzymatic activities. These structures can function as supported biocatalysts, having the potential to simulate living tissues. The new science in the research will be integrated with education at multiple levels, including high school seniors, high school teachers, undergraduates (about 7% of the funding for this award will be used for hiring undergraduate researchers), graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. The knowledge derived from this research will advance making small-molecule drugs and modifying protein drugs developed in pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. The hydrogel materials can be coated onto a wide range of materials, including those used in medical instruments, to reduce biofouling and occurrence of infection in patients. The new hydrogels also have the potential to function as biodegradable implants for tissue regeneration. As this project elucidates new fundamental principles of self-assembly, the research has the potential to change the landscape of colloidal and interfacial sciences. Integrating with education, laboratory manuals and web pages will be generated.