UNS: Collaborative Research: Describing Macromolecular Transport through Chemically-Tuned Nanoporous Membranes via Theory, Computation, and Experiment

boudouris, Bryan / Phillip， WilliamMembranes在许多分离过程中是至关重要的，在这些分离过程中，需要的产品从不需要的物种中分离出来。特别是，许多新兴的药物治疗需要在活性长链生物大分子离开生物制药反应器时进行纯化。这些生物大分子最近已被批准用于治疗各种危及生命的疾病，包括癌症和自身免疫性疾病。然而，大规模生产和纯化这些重要材料的高成本，往往转移到患者身上，阻碍了它们在临床实践中的广泛应用。在这里，我们将评估这些重要的治疗剂等大分子是如何通过膜材料运输的。通过将实验结果与理论预测和计算模拟相结合，我们将能够全面了解通过小孔隙进行传输的过程。通过这种方式，我们将能够设计出更好的膜。这就有可能产生更具成本效益的净化系统，从而减少治疗病人的费用，并为治疗许多毁灭性疾病开辟一种经济手段。大分子物种的运输在一系列技术上重要的膜分离应用（例如，治疗性蛋白质的分离）中具有根本的重要性。然而，在热力学平衡和没有外部刺激（如外加电场）的情况下，溶解的聚合物链如何穿过孔径相当于或小于链的流体动力学直径的膜的确切机制尚不完全清楚。因此，迫切需要确定孔径、孔化学和溶液环境如何影响大分子在结构良好的膜上的界面运输。在这里，我们将利用实验技术、热力学理论和计算建模的结合，以便将纳米级现象与宏观层面的物理观察联系起来。我们的愿景将导致对化学选择性大分子通过小孔隙运输的分子到膜水平的理解；这种理解，将通过先进的材料表征方法将连续输运特性与分子模型联系起来，将使我们能够在许多当前和新兴的分离平台中为化学选择性膜的合理工程制定设计原则。在尺寸和化学选择性膜领域中产生结构-性能-性能关系将导致膜设计的改进。反过来，这将有助于降低生产成本，提高生产普通消费品和更高价值产品（如治疗药品）所需的许多过程的能源效率。因此，这项工作的成功完成有可能以积极的方式影响当前的制造过程。此外，普渡大学和圣母大学之间的合作将允许两所大学的学生在合作机构开展工作。这样，学生将有一个更多样化的教育体验。除研究生外，本科生和高中生将对该项目进行研究。特别是，高中生将成为美国化学学会的一员？s项目种子计划。在这个项目中，来自经济困难家庭（即家庭收入不能超过贫困线以上的2倍）的高中学生在科学和工程方面有希望，在夏季被安排在大学实验室，以便为他们提供独特的研究经历。因此，这项工作有能力推进基础膜科学，并影响具有不同社会经济和教育背景的跨学科科学家和工程师的独特群体。

Collaborative Proposals#1511835 / #1511862Boudouris, Bryan / Phillip, WilliamMembranes are crucial in a number of separation processes where desired products are isolated from undesired species. In particular, many emerging pharmaceutical treatments require the purification of active long-chain biomacromolecules as they leave the biopharmaceutical reactor. These biomacromolecules recently have been approved for the treatment of a variety of life-threatening diseases, including cancer and autoimmune diseases. However, the high cost of large-scale production and purification of these important materials, which is often transferred to the patient, has prevented their widespread implementation in clinical practice. Here, we will evaluate how macromolecules such as these important therapeutic agents are transported through membrane materials. By combining experimental results with theoretical predictions and computational simulations, we will be able to develop a complete picture of how transport occurs through small pores. In this way, we will be able to design better membranes. This opens the potential of generating more cost-effective purification systems, which could lessen the costs of patient treatment and open an economical means by which to treat a number of devastating diseases.The transport of macromolecular species is of fundamental import in a range of technologically-important membrane separations applications (e.g., the separation of therapeutic proteins). However, the exact mechanism of how a dissolved polymer chain traverses a membrane with pore sizes comparable to or smaller than the hydrodynamic diameter of the chain at thermodynamic equilibrium and without external stimuli (e.g., applied electric fields) is not understood fully. As such, a critical need exists to establish how pore size, pore chemistry, and the solution environment affect the interfacial transport of macromolecules across well-structured membranes. Here, we will utilize a combination of experimental techniques, thermodynamic theory, and computational modeling in order to tie nanoscale phenomena to physical observables at the macroscopic level. Our vision will result in a molecule-to-membrane level understanding of chemically-selective macromolecular transport through small pores; this understanding, which will be developed by connecting continuum transport properties to molecular models through advanced materials characterization methodologies, will enable us to develop the design principles for the rational engineering of chemically-selective membranes in a number of current and emerging separations platforms.Generating structure-property-performance relationships in the realm of size and chemically-selective membranes will lead to improved membrane design. This, in turn, will help decrease production costs and increase the energy efficiency of many processes required for the production of common consumer goods and more high-value products (e.g., therapeutic pharmaceuticals). As such, successful completion of this work has the potential to impact current manufacturing processes in a positive manner. Furthermore, the collaboration between Purdue University and the University of Notre Dame will allow students from both institutions to perform work at the partner institution. In this way, the students will have a more diverse educational experience. In addition to graduate students, undergraduate and high school students will perform research on this project. In particular, the high school student will be part of the American Chemical Society?s Project SEED program. In this program, high school students from economically-disadvantaged families (i.e., the family income cannot be greater than a factor of 2 above the poverty line) who show promise in science and engineering are placed in university laboratories during the summer in order to afford them a unique research experience. Therefore, this work has the ability to advance fundamental membrane science and to impact a unique group of interdisciplinary scientists and engineers with diverse socioeconomic and educational backgrounds.