DMREF/Collaborative Research: DNA-based Sensing, Communicating, and Phase-Separating Materials

机器人材料是一种集驱动、传感、通信和计算功能于一体的新兴材料。例如，带有用于传感的嵌入式电子设备的人造皮肤，以及用于伪装的具有自适应纹理变形的复合材料。虽然在开发宏观机器人材料方面取得了重大进展，但将机器人功能从纳米级整合到微米级仍然是一个挑战。DNA是制造这种机器人纳米材料的极佳候选者，因为它能够制造出具有前所未有的复杂几何形状和可重构性的纳米结构。这一设计材料革新和设计我们的未来(DMREF)奖支持基础研究，以支持开发具有传感、通信和相分离功能的机器人DNA材料，整合DNA纳米技术、单分子测量和分子建模方面的多学科专业知识。该团队将创造能够感知当地环境的DNA纳米结构，并将这些结构组装成传递信号或展示集体行为的更大系统。这将使材料能够根据外部触发改变其结构、调整其性质或改变其环境，这可能在纳米制造、生物传感、能量收集或存储、芯片实验室系统和药物输送方面具有广泛的应用。该项目还将在DNA纳米技术、分子机器人、单分子测量和多尺度建模方面为研究生和本科生提供独特的培训机会。研究人员将组织研讨会，以促进新材料设计和建模方法的分享，并制定机器人纳米材料的课程。此外，该项目的发现将被整合到俄亥俄州中部和北卡罗来纳州的推广项目中，以激发下一代劳动力对科学和工程的兴趣。集纳米到微米级的传感、驱动、通信和信息处理为一体的机器人材料可以为社会提供许多技术好处，应用范围从纳米制造到医学。这项研究研究力、信号和机制，使基于DNA的机器人材料的开发能够在各种载荷条件下感知力，远距离通信信号，并展示相分离功能。为了实现这些功能，该团队将利用DNA纳米结构定义良好的纳米级几何和动态特性，以及DNA结合相互作用的特异性和可编程性。多尺度分子模拟方法将通过单分子表征方法的反馈来指导具有目标结构、力学和动力学性质的DNA器件的设计。该团队将通过分层自组装来创建材料，利用单个设备的属性和设备之间的交互来扩展传感能力，通过传播的构象变化传输信号，并展示由本地交互驱动的集体行为。这将为开发从纳米到微米级的新型复杂机器人材料提供基础，这些材料可以在室温下在水环境中运行。这一奖项反映了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。

Robotic materials are an emerging class of materials that integrate actuation, sensing, communication, and computing functions. Examples include artificial skins with embedded electronics for sensing, and composites with adaptive texture morphing for camouflage. While there has been significant progress in developing macroscopic robotic materials, integrating robotic functions at the nano to microscale remains a challenge. DNA is as an excellent candidate for creating such robotic nanomaterials because it enables fabrication of nanostructures with unprecedented complex geometry and reconfigurability. This Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) award supports fundamental research to enable development of robotic DNA materials with sensing, communicating, and phase separating functions, integrating multidisciplinary expertise in DNA nanotechnology, single molecule measurements, and molecular modeling. The team will create DNA nanostructures that sense the local environment and assemble those structures into larger systems that transmit signals or exhibit collective behaviors. This will enable materials that change their structure, adapt their properties, or modify their environment in response to external triggers, which could have a range of applications in nanomanufacturing, biological sensing, energy harvesting or storage, lab-on-a-chip systems, and drug delivery. This project will also provide unique training opportunities to graduate and undergraduate students in DNA nanotechnology, molecular robotics, single-molecule measurements, and multi-scale modeling. The researchers will organize workshops to facilitate sharing of new materials design and modeling methods and develop curricula in robotic nanomaterials. Furthermore, this project's findings will be integrated into outreach programs in Central Ohio and North Carolina to generate interest in science and engineering from the next generation workforce.Robotic materials that integrate sensing, actuation, and communication and processing of information at nano- to microscales can provide many technological benefits to society, with applications ranging from nanomanufacturing to medicine. This research investigates the forces, signals, and mechanisms that enable the development of DNA-based robotic materials that sense forces under various loading conditions, communicate signals over long distances, and exhibit phase separating functionalities. To achieve these functions, the team will leverage the well-defined nanoscale geometry and dynamic properties of DNA nanostructures and the specificity and programmability of DNA binding interactions. Multi-scale molecular modeling methods will guide the design of DNA devices with targeted structural, mechanical, and dynamic properties with feedback from single molecule characterization methods. The team will create materials via hierarchical self-assembly that leverage individual device properties and interactions between devices to expand sensing capabilities, transmit signals via propagated conformational changes, and exhibit collective behaviors driven by local interactions. This will provide a foundation to develop new and complex robotic materials from the nano- to micron-scale that operate at room temperature in aqueous environments.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.