Fundamentals of protein interactions and their engineering applications

蛋白质不仅能够与自身相互作用，而且能够与其他生物成分和其他材料相互作用。 当这些相互作用在人类中异常时，这些相互作用可能导致疾病，例如称为亨廷顿氏病的神经退行性疾病。 这些相互作用在许多生物化学工业过程中也很重要，从饮用水处理中使用的膜的污染到可降解塑料和薄膜的生产，再到医疗诊断系统。 拟议研究的目的是应用非破坏性方法来跟踪各种类型的蛋白质相互作用。 对这些相互作用的研究是有用的，因为它将提供对控制这些相互作用的基本原理的洞察，以及根据情况控制或减少它们的方法。 在环境中，蛋白质是所谓的天然有机物或NOM.NOM也是一个重要的膜污染物，有许多问题围绕NOM.For，饮用水处理中的膜污染增加了城市承担的成本，因为它需要定期再生或清洗膜。 通过监测或了解结垢的机制，可以应用最小化结垢的方法（例如，结合适当的预处理方法，如生物过滤）或优化方法。 在许多水处理过程中，消毒是一个重要的步骤。 不幸的是，我们现在认识到，NOM的消毒副产物（DBPs）可能会导致严重的人类健康问题，如癌症或作为内分泌干扰物。 拥有监测NOM成分的工具可以深入了解导致DBP的成分以及最大限度地减少其形成的方法（例如，在膜过滤之前使用絮凝剂以去除DBP），并改善饮用水质量和人类健康。

Proteins have the ability to interact not only with themselves, but with other biological constituents and other materials. When these interactions are abnormal in humans, these interactions may cause disease, such as the neurodegenerative disease known as Huntington's. These interactions are also important in a large number of biochemical industrial processes ranging from fouling of membranes used in the treatment of drinking water to the production of degradable plastics and films to medical diagnostic systems. The objective of the proposed research is to apply non-destructive methods to follow protein interactions of various types. The study of these interactions is useful in that it will provide insight into the fundamentals governing these interactions and ways of either controlling them or reducing them depending on the situation. In the environment, proteins are part of what is referred to as natural organic matter or NOM. NOM is also a significant membrane foulant and there are many issues surrounding NOM. For example, membrane fouling in drinking water treatment adds to the cost borne by municipalities for water treatment as it requires that the membranes be periodically regenerated or cleaned. Either by monitoring or understanding the mechanisms of fouling approaches to minimize fouling (for example incorporation of appropriate pretreatment methods such as biofiltration) or optimization approaches can be applied. In many water treatment processes, disinfection is an important step. Unfortunately we now recognize that disinfection by-products (DBPs) from NOM can cause serious human health problems such as cancer or serve as endocrine disruptors. Having tools to monitor NOM constituents can provide insight into the components that contribute to DBPs and ways of minimizing their formation (for example, the use of flocculants prior to membrane filtration to remove the DBP's) and improve drinking water quality and human health.