Biomimetic Sensors, Catalysts, and Materials: Chemistry at the Bio/Abio Interface

在化学系大分子、超分子和纳米化学项目（MSN）的支持下，德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的Lauren Webb教授正在将表面化学合成和先进的化学分析工具结合起来，研究蛋白质在非生物环境下的行为。将生物分子整合到人工环境中，可以将生物相关功能与合成材料相结合，从而在人工环境中整合而不是复制这些功能。在这个所谓的“生物/生物”界面上，基本的生物功能可以被用来检测具有特殊灵敏度的分析物，或者在环境友好的反应条件下催化有用分子的合成。Webb教授和她的学生正在通过结合合成化学和生物化学来解决制备和表征这些系统的核心挑战。他们的发现可能会为基于蛋白质的传感器、催化剂和生物材料带来新的方法，因为他们开发了表征、操作和探索了全新一代的生物功能材料。Webb教授是韦尔奇暑期学者项目（Welch Summer Scholars Program， WSSP）的州主任，这是一个为期39年的项目，为德克萨斯州的高中生提供一个真实的、重要的、有意义的化学科学暑期住宿研究经验。在接下来的三年里，这项提案将产生更广泛的影响：1)开发一个面向德克萨斯州所有高中学生和化学教师的在线暑期研讨会项目；2)发展WSSP校友网络，为该项目杰出的校友群体提供指导和职业发展。长期以来，创造受生物启发的功能设备和材料的核心挑战是将天然生物分子结构、动力学和功能整合到非生物环境中；每个“bio”和“abio”组件都有自己独特的属性集，必须在全新的上下文中进行交互。Webb教授和她的学生正在研究生物分子与材料相互作用的行为，以合成、表征和扩展生物/生物科学到传感、催化和合成新型生物材料的各种潜在应用。参与该项目的学生将获得广泛的表面化学合成经验和一套化学分析技术，包括红外光谱，x射线光电子能谱（XPS），表面圆二色（CD）光谱，中子反射（NR）和扫描探针显微镜。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program (MSN) in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Lauren Webb of The University of Texas at Austin is combining surface chemical synthesis and advanced chemical analytics tools to study how proteins behave in abiological contexts. Integrating biological molecules into artificial environments allows biologically relevant function to be combined with synthetic materials in order to incorporate, rather than replicate, these capabilities in an artificial context. At this so-called “bio/abio” interface, basic biological functions can be co-opted to detect analytes with exceptional sensitivity or to catalyze the synthesis of useful molecules under environmentally friendly reaction conditions. Professor Webb and her students are addressing the central challenges of preparing and characterizing these systems by combining synthetic and biological chemistry. Their discoveries could lead to new approaches for protein-based sensors, catalysts and biomaterials as they develop characterize, manipulate, and explore an entirely new generation of biologically functional materials. Professor Webb is the State Director of the Welch Summer Scholars Program (WSSP), a 39-year program that provides rising high school students in the state of Texas with an authentic, significant, and meaningful summer residential research experience in the chemical sciences. Broader Impacts activities over the next three years of this proposal will 1) develop an online summer seminar program designed for all Texas high school students and chemistry teachers; and 2) grow a WSSP alumni network for mentoring and career development of the extraordinary alumni base of this program.The long-standing, central challenge to creating biologically-inspired functional devices and materials is to integrate native biomolecular structure, dynamics, and function into an abiological environment; each “bio” and “abio” component carries its own unique set of properties that must interact in an entirely new context. Professor Webb and her students are studying the behavior of biomolecular-material interactions for each individual component to synthesize, characterize, and expand bio/abio science to sensing, catalysis, and synthesis of novel biological materials for a wide variety of potential applications. The students involved in this project will gain a wide range of experience in surface chemical synthesis and a suite of chemical analysis techniques including infrared spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), surface circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, neutron reflectometry (NR) and scanning probe microscopy.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.