CAREER: Fundamental studies of enzyme-polysaccharide interactions towards improving the kinetics of biomass conversion

在生物质转化为生物燃料的领域，许多热转化催化途径正在研究中，而很少有生物转化催化途径得到同样的研究。这反映了问题的难度。植物生物质大规模生物转化为先进生物燃料的技术障碍之一是对单个和协同水解酶水解细胞壁多糖的基本机制的了解有限。因此，在反应规模、原料可变性和酶系统等变量的影响下，糖化反应的结果是不可预测的。加州大学戴维斯分校的PI Tina Jeoh建议了解影响水解动力学的纤维素酶-纤维素相互作用，并将分子尺度上的基本界面相互作用研究与大规模的糖化速率联系起来，作为她的CAREER项目的研究目标。用于研究原生、未干燥的纤维素微原纤维对其与水和酶的界面相互作用的影响的特定工具包括原子力显微镜、共聚焦显微镜和体外生化分析。在这个项目中，化学力光谱将进一步增强实验能力，使用与特定化学物质或蛋白质共轭的扫描探针直接探测纳米尺度上的纤维素表面化学。这些方法代表了对酶细胞壁降解问题的重大全面攻击，并有望增加对这一领域的基本理解。对职业奖的教育部分也提出了同样积极的办法，重点是增加妇女在工程领域的代表性。PI Jeoh认为，女性在STEM劳动力中的代表性不足，主要是由于在整个教育过程中环境和培养因素不足。这个CAREER提案的教育方法之一是让周围社区的K-12女孩参加一年一度的WISTEM女孩博览会，来自Yolo县学校的50-60名女孩将被邀请到加州大学戴维斯分校校园，参加一天的STEM活动和实验室参观，由女性科学与工程（WISE）校园团体和ISIS教育共同主办，ISIS教育是戴维斯当地的一个非营利组织，旨在提高女孩对STEM的参与。该项目研究的更广泛影响包括克服阻碍成功建立可行的先进生物燃料产业的关键技术挑战，生物燃料是目前最有前途和可持续的替代化石燃料的运输燃料。该项目的教育计划的更广泛影响是通过让学龄女童参与STEM活动，帮助增加STEM劳动力中的女性人数。

In the realm of biomass conversion to biofuels, many thermoconversion catalytic routes are under study, while far fewer bioconversion catalytic routes receive the same study. This is reflective of the difficulty of the problem. One of the challenging technological barriers to the large scale bioconversion of plant biomass to advanced biofuels is the limited understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of cell wall polysaccharide hydrolysis by individual and synergistic hydrolytic enzymes. Therefore, saccharification reaction outcomes are not predictable over variables of reaction scale, feedstock variability and enzyme systems. PI Tina Jeoh, of the University of California Davis proposes to understand cellulase-cellulose interactions that impact the kinetics of hydrolysis, and relate studies of fundamental interfacial interactions at the molecular-scale to saccharification rates on the bulk-scale as the research objective of her CAREER project. Specific tools to be used to study the effect of cellulose surface chemistry of native, never-dried cellulose microfibrils on interfacial interactions with water and enzymes include atomic force microscopy, confocal microscopy and in vitro biochemical assays. The experimental capabilities will be further enhanced during this project by chemical force spectroscopy using scanning probes conjugated to specific chemistries or protein to directly probe cellulose surface chemistry at the nanometer scale. These approaches represent significantly comprehensive attacks on the problem of enzymatic cell wall degradation, and promise to increase the fundamental understanding of this area.An equally aggressive approach has been proposed for the educational component of the CAREER award, with emphasis on increasing the representation of women in engineering. PI Jeoh believes women are under-represented in the STEM workforce largely due to insufficient environmental and nurturing factors throughout their education. One of the educational approaches of this CAREER proposal is to engage K-12 girls in surrounding communities in an annual WISTEM for girls fair where 50-60 girls from Yolo county schools will be invited to the UC Davis campus for a day of STEM activities and lab tours, co-hosted by the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) campus group and ISIS Education, a local non-profit group in Davis aiming to increase girls participation in STEM. The broader impacts of the research from this project include the overcoming of key technological challenges standing in the way of the successful establishment of a viable advanced biofuels industry, which is currently the most promising and sustainable transportation fuel alternative to fossil fuels. The broader impact of the education plan of this project is to help increase the numbers of women in the STEM workforce by engaging school-aged girls in STEM activities.