Exploring the chemistry of ferrocene bioconjugates.

NSERC的这项发现拨款提案重点关注二茂铁-多肽共轭化合物，它们在溶液中和表面的性质，包括它们的电化学和材料性质。特别是，我们正在开发二茂铁肽的缔合能力，以形成基于纳米纤维结构的凝胶材料。这种凝胶材料在其基质中包含了大量的溶剂。在这个研究项目中，我们正在探索导致聚集和凝胶形成的因素，其中包括多肽手性和二茂铁肽结合物的自分类行为的影响。*我们的短期目标是扩大我们基于发现的刺激响应性和自分类Fc-肽凝胶的研究，将有机和水凝胶包括在内，并研究手性对凝胶的影响。这对于我们理解导致早期生命的化学进化具有潜在的意义，并可能提供关于为什么生命(在大多数情况下)更喜欢同手性多肽系统，以及简单的多肽系统如何组织成更复杂的结构的洞察。此外，我们还将探索Fc-肽在金衬底上的成膜作用，并研究其电化学性质，以期获得多肽中电子转移的定量信息。这个想法是将这种基于多肽模型的信息与生物系统中的电子转移联系起来。最后，我们将研究Fc-肽与金属离子的相互作用，特别是为了设计金属蛋白在溶液中和表面上的活性部位，并将尝试创建一个铁-硫蛋白的工作模型，包括Rieske蛋白的多肽模型。*由学生和博士后实习生组成的团队将使我们能够在分子水平上探索生物分子的相互作用和功能，从而帮助指导具有已知组装和材料性质的结构明确的分子的设计。作为这项研究计划的一部分，我们将培训研究生和本科生在合成肽化学、材料的表征方面，并提供电化学方法方面的专家培训，这将使我们的团队能够为多伦多大学的学术活动做出重大贡献。**

This NSERC discovery grant proposal focuses on ferrocene-peptide conjugates, their properties in solution and on surfaces, including their electrochemical and materials properties. In particular, we are exploiting the ability of ferrocene peptides to associate to form gel materials based on a nanofibrillar architecture. Such gel materials incorporate large amounts of solvents in their matrix. In this research program, we are exploring factors leading to aggregation and gel formation, among them is the influence of peptide chirality and self-sorting behavior of ferrocene peptide conjugates. ***Our short-term objectives are to expand our discovery-based research of stimuli-responsive and self-sorting Fc-peptide gels to include both organo- and hydrogels and study the effects of chirality on gelation. This has potential implications with regards to our understanding of chemical evolution leading to early life, and may provide insight into why life (in most cases) prefers homochiral peptide systems, and how simple peptide systems organize into more complex structures. Furthermore, we will explore Fc-peptides for film formation on gold substrates and to study their electrochemical properties in an attempt to obtain quantitative information about electron transfer in peptides. The idea is to relate this information based on peptide models back to electron transfer in biological systems. And lastly, we will study the interaction of Fc-peptides with metal ions, specifically for the design of active sites of metalloproteins in solution and on surfaces and will attempt to create a working model for iron-sulfur proteins, including a peptide model for the Rieske protein. ***With a team of students and postdoctoral trainees, this research program will allow us to explore interactions and functions of biomolecules at the molecular level and thus aid in guiding the design of structurally well-defined molecules with known assembly and materials properties. As part of this research program, we will train graduate and undergraduate students in synthetic peptide chemistry, the characterization of materials and provide expert training in electrochemical methods, which will enable our team to contribute significantly to the scholarly activity of the University of Toronto.**