Interactive materials: guiding rational design through biomolecular characterization

当你想到材料时，有用物体的积木可能会出现在你的脑海中，比如建筑用的木头，衣服的布料，或者罐子的铜。不可否认，材料已经从这些早期的自然例子发展到包括玻璃纤维、尼龙和钢等合成物质。随着我们的工程能力和需求的增加，对新材料的需求也越来越大。一个例子是对外部刺激做出反应的响应材料，例如随着外加电场而改变形状的压电体，或者随着温度和pH变化而融化以释放药物的药物胶囊。在局部水平微调材料性能和响应的能力是当前许多研究的目标，例如制造自我修复系统，或者规定微观或纳米运动的路径，这可以引导药物输送或激活到非常特定的位置。*我们的研究计划围绕这些互动材料系统的想法设计，从大自然中寻找如何实现这些的灵感，并试图通过从头开始设计这些材料和设备来测试我们对这些设计原理的理解。*胶原是我们身体中的基本结构蛋白质，提供了一个生物材料表现出许多这些特性的最好的例子。胶原蛋白材料由单个蛋白质组装而成坚韧的纤维，就像许多细丝组成的绳索一样，胶原蛋白材料模板骨骼的矿化，发送生物信号指导细胞发育，并阻止转移的癌细胞的运动。在我们的生物寿命中，我们的含胶原结缔组织经历了更新的过程，在这个过程中，胶原纤维被居住在它们体内的细胞分解和重建。在我们的研究中，我们设计并使用了分子操纵工具，如全息光学(激光)镊子和离心力显微镜，来检验力、结构和胶原分解之间的相互作用。*为了测试我们对工作原理的理解，我们正在用DNA和多肽等生物构建块建造新材料，目的是创造出具有所需机械性能的组装材料。然后，我们测试如何有选择地改变这些，以响应我们在实验室设计的分子马达，并通过实验和模拟进行探索。*我们的研究计划旨在阐明在纳米和微米尺度上局部指导和控制材料性质变化的新方法。它通过整合来自一系列科学学科的尖端技术，并强调发展沟通技能以培养广泛的科学素养，为HQP提供了出色的跨学科培训机会。

When you think about materials, building blocks for useful objects might spring to mind, such as wood for buildings, cloth for clothing, or copper for pots. Undeniably, materials have advanced from these early natural examples to include synthetic substances such as fibreglass, nylon and steel. As our engineering capabilities and needs increase, there is ever more demand for novel materials. One example is responsive materials that respond to external stimuli, such as piezoelectrics, which change shape in response to applied electric fields, or drug capsules, which melt to release medicine in response to temperature and pH. The ability to fine-tune material properties and response at a local level is an aim of much current research, for example to make self-healing systems, or to prescribe pathways for microscopic or nanoscopic motion, which could guide drug delivery or activation to very specific locations.******Our research program is designed around ideas of these interactive materials systems, looking to nature for inspiration as to how these can be accomplished, and seeking to test our understanding of these design principles by engineering such materials and devices from scratch.******Collagen, the fundamental structural protein in our body, offers a prime example of a biological material exhibiting many of these properties. Assembled from individual proteins to make strong fibres, as a rope is made of many tiny threads, collagen materials template the mineralization of bone, send biological signals to direct cellular development, and impede the motion of metastasizing cancer cells. Throughout their biological lifespan, our collagen-containing connective tissues undergo processes of renewal, where collagen fibrils are broken down and rebuilt by cells living in their housing. In our research, we design and use molecular manipulation tools, such as holographic optical (laser) tweezers and a centrifuge force microscope, to examine the interplay between force, structure and breakdown of collagen. ******To test our understanding of operational principles, we are building new materials from biological building blocks such as DNA and peptides, with an aim of creating assembled materials of desired mechanical properties. We then test how these are selectively altered in response to molecular motors that we engineer in the lab and explore through experiment and simulation. ******Our research program aims to elucidate novel means by which to locally guide and control alteration of material properties at the nanoscale and microscale. It offers outstanding interdisciplinary training opportunities for HQP through its integration of cutting-edge techniques from a range of scientific disciplines and by emphasizing the development of communication skills to foster broad scientific literacy.**