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

该研究计划的长期目标是开发新的生物启发和生物来源的聚合物材料，这些材料从水溶液中非共价自组装形成稳定的生物膜和结构，并且还响应温和的刺激（如光）以实现局部可逆的结构转变。首要目标在于理解这些光可逆生物材料如何在真实的生物界面处相互作用，然后探索人们可以在该界面上获得的控制程度，以用于各种生物医学或生物工程应用。这些新的聚合物组件将模仿真实的生物组织的柔软，湿润，顺应性的可调能力，并结合少量的光响应形状变化偶氮染料模仿我们的视紫红质/视网膜系统，使视觉，提供一个直接的光生物通信接口。从实用的角度来看，这些新的聚合物是感兴趣的“智能”表面的信号，传感和控制附近的生物活性，由于温和的可见光化学功能的组合，和它们固有的软，湿的生物相容性。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对活组织/细胞与人工介质之间界面的生物功能以及它们之间的通信进行基本理解。 这些新材料由水溶性和生物来源的成分组成，当它们自组装在一起时，可以形成不溶性、稳定和坚固的聚合物材料。这种受控的溶解度向稳定性的转变允许有希望的天然聚合物首次被掺入（丝和其他蛋白质、壳聚糖和其他多糖），以保持它们所需的性质，但防止它们在水中的易溶解性，并因此被应用为改进的细胞培养基，并最终在体内作为植入物的生物相容性涂层。这一建议代表了我们的研究从更简单的人工模拟生物聚合物，到真实的生物来源的上级天然聚合物的第一次扩展。这将使我们能够开发完全天然的（即：FDA批准的，甚至可食用的）聚合物组件，用于体内生物医学应用，这些组件完全软粘合在一起，从而保持其生物相容性和低毒性。这可以进一步允许用于递送的软结合的化学货物被容易地且温和地装载和释放。该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反应，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对这种界面的控制程度，现在使用自然作为软有机材料，并以光作为通讯媒介。

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.