Interactive materials: guiding rational design through biomolecular characterization

当你想到材料时，你可能会想到有用物品的积木，比如建筑用的木头，衣服用的布料，或者罐子用的铜。不可否认，材料已经从这些早期的自然例子发展到包括合成物质，如玻璃，尼龙和钢。随着我们的工程能力和需求的增加，对新型材料的需求也越来越大。一个例子是响应于外部刺激的响应材料，例如压电材料，其响应于施加的电场而改变形状，或者药物胶囊，其响应于温度和pH而熔化以释放药物。在局部水平上微调材料特性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，或规定微观或纳米级运动的路径，这可以引导药物输送或激活到非常特定的位置。我们的研究计划是围绕这些互动材料系统的想法而设计的，寻找自然界的灵感，以了解如何实现这些，并寻求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则的理解。胶原蛋白是我们身体的基本结构蛋白，它提供了一个生物材料的最好例子，展示了许多这些特性。胶原蛋白由单个蛋白质组装而成，形成坚固的纤维，就像绳子是由许多细线组成的一样，胶原蛋白材料可以模板化骨的矿化，发送生物信号来指导细胞发育，并阻止转移癌细胞的运动。在它们的生物寿命中，我们的含胶原蛋白的结缔组织经历更新过程，其中胶原蛋白纤维被生活在它们的房屋中的细胞分解和重建。在我们的研究中，我们设计和使用分子操纵工具，如全息光学（激光）镊子和离心力显微镜，以研究力，结构和胶原蛋白分解之间的相互作用。** 为了测试我们对工作原理的理解，我们正在从生物构建模块（如DNA和肽）中构建新材料，目的是创造具有所需机械性能的组装材料。然后，我们测试这些是如何选择性地改变，以响应我们在实验室中设计的分子马达，并通过实验和模拟进行探索。** 我们的研究计划旨在阐明新的手段，通过这些手段在纳米级和微米级局部引导和控制材料特性的改变。它通过整合来自一系列科学学科的尖端技术，并通过强调沟通技能的发展来促进广泛的科学素养，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.**