CRII: AF: RUI: Explorations in the Self-Assembly of Distributed Biological Functions

在许多自然现象中都可以观察到自组装的过程。通过这一过程，仅受局部结合规则指导的单个组件(例如，分子)聚集在一起形成复杂的结构。这一过程对许多极其复杂的结构的形成是不可或缺的，比如雪花，甚至像病毒这样的生物有机体。利用自组装技术，科学家们正在开发一种自下而上的纳米技术制造方法，这种方法不是从原材料开始，然后提取所需的结构，而是设计分子构建块，使这些构建块选择性地结合在一起，以分子(如果不是原子)级别的精度自组装所需的结构。虽然许多数学模型被定义为工程自组装系统的设计和分析的理论，但由于自组装也是一种自然发生的现象，自组装模型在模拟自然系统中是有用的。许多自然出现的自组装系统的一个共同的重要特征是，这些系统是由分布式组件的复杂交互驱动的。为了描述在许多生物功能中发挥作用的分布式组件中观察到的平衡行为，该项目将使用自组装的数学模型来研究自组装组件之间复杂的通信序列如何产生超过单个自组装组件的功能。通过支持许多本科生研究助理，该项目将影响校园和院系的研究环境，以及本科教育的质量。此外，该项目将通过面向普通受众并向本科生宣传的跨学科研究研讨会，提高威斯康星大学河瀑布分校的跨学科研究意识。该项目提出了对基本问题的研究，这些问题启动了对表现出分布式行为的系统进行建模的严格框架的开发，导致了可以直接应用于定义模仿生物功能的瓦片组装系统的技术。最终，在自组装模型中研究分布式系统将进一步理解分布式系统在自组装中的复杂行为以及潜在的新用途--可用于工程自组装系统的用途。该项目将使用主动瓷砖组装模型，如信号传递瓷砖组装模型(STAM)来定义和分析系统，这些系统克服了定义的限制，展示了算法行为，必须依赖于这种行为在系统的各个组件中分布。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The process of self-assembly is observable in many natural phenomena. Through this process, individual components (for example, molecules) that are guided merely by local binding rules coalesce to form complex structures. This process is integral to the formation of many vastly complicated structures such as snowflakes and even biological organisms like viruses. Using self-assembly, scientists are developing a bottom-up manufacturing approach to nanotechnology where instead of starting with raw materials and extracting a desired structure, molecular building blocks are designed so that these building blocks selectively bind in such a way that the desired structure self-assembles with molecular- (if not atomic-) level precision. While many mathematical models have been defined to serve as a theory for the design and analysis of engineered self-assembling systems, as self-assembly is also a naturally occurring phenomenon, models of self-assembly are useful in modeling natural systems. A common important feature of many naturally occurring examples of self-assembling systems is that these systems are driven by the complex interaction of distributed components. In order to describe the balancing act observed in the distributed components that play a role in many biological functions, this project will use mathematical models of self-assembly to study how complex sequences of communication between self-assembled components can yield functionality that surpasses functionality of a single self-assembled component. By supporting many undergraduate research assistants, this project will impact the campus and departmental research environment, as well as the quality of undergraduate education. Moreover, the project will increase awareness of interdisciplinary research at University of Wisconsin-River Falls by means of an interdisciplinary research seminar targeting a general audience and advertised to undergraduate students. The project proposes the study of fundamental questions that initiate the development of rigorous frameworks for modeling systems which exhibit distributed behaviors, leading to techniques that could directly be applied in defining tile assembly systems which mimic biological functions. Ultimately, studying distributed systems in models of self-assembly leads to further understanding of the complex behaviors as well as potential novel uses of distributed systems in self-assembly - uses that can be employed in engineered self-assembling systems. The project will use active tile assembly models such as the Signal-passing Tile Assembly Model (STAM) to define and analyze systems, which overcome defined constraints to exhibit algorithmic behavior, by necessarily relying on this behavior being distributed among the individual assemblies of the system.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.