Developing New Soft-Bonded Light-Reversible Polymer Bio-Materials

这项拟议研究计划的长期目标是开发新的生物启发和生物源聚合物材料，这些材料从水溶液中以非共价方式自组装形成稳定的生物膜和结构，并对温和的刺激(如光)做出响应，实现局部可逆的结构转变。一个重要的目标是了解这些光可逆生物材料如何在真实的生物界面上相互作用，然后探索人们可以在多大程度上控制这种界面，以用于各种生物医疗或生物工程应用。这些新的聚合物组件将在其柔软、潮湿、顺应的可调谐能力上模拟真实的生物组织，少量加入的光响应型形状变化偶氮染料将模拟我们的视紫红质/视网膜系统，以提供直接的光-生物通信接口。从实用的角度来看，这些新型聚合物由于结合了温和的可见光化学功能以及其固有的柔软、湿润的生物兼容性，被认为是用于信号、传感和控制邻近生物活性的智能表面。从基础科学的角度来看，这些新材料及其研究理想地将使我们能够从化学和材料的角度帮助我们基本理解活组织/细胞和人工介质之间的生物功能，以及它们之间的交流。*由水溶性和生物来源的成分制成，当这些新材料自我组装在一起时，可以形成不溶的、稳定的和强大的聚合材料。这种可控的溶解度向稳定性的转变使得有希望的天然聚合物(丝素和其他蛋白质、壳聚糖和其他多糖)首次被加入进来，既保留了它们所希望的特性，又防止了它们在水中的易溶，从而被应用于改进的细胞培养介质，并最终在体内作为植入物的生物兼容涂层。这一提议代表着我们的研究首次从更简单的人工模拟生物聚合物扩展到真正的生物来源的优质天然聚合物。这将使我们能够开发用于体内生物医学应用的完全天然的(即：FDA批准的，甚至可食用的)聚合物组件，这些组件完全软结合在一起，从而保持其生物兼容性和低毒性。这可以进一步使待交付的软装订的化学品货物易于和轻柔地装载和释放。这项研究计划的长期愿景在于开发新的生物启发和仿生材料，这些材料可以从水溶液中自组装并对光做出响应，了解它们如何与真实的生物界面相互作用，然后探索生物医学应用中对这种界面的控制程度，现在将自然作为软有机材料的灵感来源，并将光作为通信媒介。

The long-term objective of this proposed research program is the development of new bio-inspired and bio-sourced polymer materials that are self-assembled non-covalently from aqueous solution to form stable bio-films and structures, and that also respond to mild stimuli (such as light) to effect local reversible structural transitions. An overarching goal lies in understanding how these photo-reversible bio-materials interact at real biological interfaces, and then exploring the extent of control one can gain over this interface for a variety of bio-medical or bio-engineering applications. These new polymer assemblies will mimic real biological tissue in their soft, wet, compliant tune-ability, and the light-responsive shape-changing azo dyes incorporated in small amounts mimic our rhodopsin/retinal systems that enable vision, to provide a direct opto-bio communication interface. From a practical standpoint these new polymers are of interest as smart' surfaces for signaling, sensing, and controlling adjacent biological activity, due to the combination of mild visible photochemical functionalities, and their inherent soft, wet bio-compatibility. From the standpoint of fundamental science, these new materials and their study ideally will enable us to contribute to basic understanding of biological function at the interface between living tissue/cells and artificial media, and communication between them, from a chemical and materials perspective. ******Built from water-soluble and bio-sourced components, when self-assembled together these new materials can form insoluble, stable, and strong polymeric materials. This controlled solubility transition to stability permits promising natural polymers to be incorporated for the first time (silk and other proteins, chitosan and other polysaccharides), to retain their desired properties yet prevent their ready solubility in water, and thus be applied as improved cell culture media, and eventually in vivo as biocompatible coatings for implants. This proposal represents the first expansion of our research from more simple artificial mimics of bio-polymers, into real bio-sourced superior natural polymers. This will enable us to develop entirely natural (ie: FDA-approved, even edible) polymeric assemblies for in vivo biomedical applications, that are completely soft-bonded together, to thus retain their biocompatibility and low toxicity. This could further allow soft-bound chemical cargo for delivery to be readily and gently loaded and released. The long-term vision of this research program lies in the development of new bio-inspired and bio-mimetic materials that can be self-assembled from aqueous solution and respond to light, understanding how they interact with real biological interfaces, and then exploring the extent of control over this interface for biomedical applications, now using nature as the inspiration for both the soft organic materials, and for light as the communication medium.