Research Initiation Award - Basic Mechanism of DNA Assembly into Nano-shells

研究启动奖为历史悠久的黑人学院和大学的初级和职业生涯中期教师提供支持，这些教师正在建立新的研究计划或重新定向和重建现有的研究计划。预计该奖项有助于进一步提高教师的研究能力和有效性，改善她所在机构的研究和教学，并让本科生参与研究经验。授予霍华德大学的奖项在纳米医学和生物检测领域具有潜在的影响。这项研究产生了更广泛的社会影响，产生了一种新的自组装药物输送载体，用于将不稳定的分子运送到细胞中，并加强了四名本科生的研究经验和培训，以便从事科学工作或进入研究生院。该项目的目标是通过重点研究甘露糖基化如何改变线性聚乙烯亚胺主链的聚合物物理，从而改变其与DNA的相互作用，并改变缩合DNA之间的堆积相互作用，来了解纳米壳的形成机制。这三个具体目标是：1)确定在三种生物物理状态下甘露糖对聚乙烯亚胺相互作用状态的影响；2)测量甘露糖层中的自粘和自聚相互作用；以及3)测量纳米壳组装中间体之间的相互作用。这项研究使用了一种创新的方法，结合了聚合物相图、多参数pH滴定、动态光散射和原子力光谱。初步数据表明，该方法是可行的。

Research Initiation Awards provide support for junior and mid-career faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities who are building new research programs or redirecting and rebuilding existing research programs. It is expected that the award helps to further the faculty member's research capability and effectiveness, improves research and teaching at her home institution, and involves undergraduate students in research experiences. The award to Howard University has potential impact in the areas of nanomedicine and bio-detection. The research has broader societal impacts by generating a new line of self-assembled drug-delivery vehicles for transporting labile molecules into cells, and by enhancing the research experience and training of four undergraduate students for pursuing a career in the sciences or entry into graduate school.The goal of the project is to understand the mechanism of nanoshells formation by focusing on how mannobiosylation alters the polymer physics of the linear polyethylenimine backbone and therefore its interaction with DNA, and alters the packing interaction between condensed DNA. The three specific objectives are to 1) determine the effect of mannobiose on the interaction state of polyethylenimine in three biophysical regimes; 2) measure the self-adhesive and self-clustering interactions in mannobiose layers; and 3) measure the interactions between the intermediates of nanoshell assembly. The study uses an innovative approach that combines polymer phase maps, multi-parameter pH titrations, dynamic light scattering and atomic force spectroscopy. Preliminary data demonstrate that the approach is feasible.