Macromolecular Bioelectronics Encoded for Biocompatibility, Self-assembly, and Degradability

下一代电子产品将自主地对局部刺激做出反应，并与人体和谐相处，为环境监测、先进消费产品和个性化治疗的健康诊断打开大门。例如，完全可生物降解的电子产品有望加快电子产品与健康的整合，因为它消除了昂贵的设备修复手术的需要，这些手术也会显著增加感染风险。这种下一代电子学的基础是开发新的电子材料，这些材料具有比我们目前的工具包更广泛的功能特性。我的研究计划的总体长期愿景是利用聚合物化学的丰富调色板来设计新材料，这些材料带有用于自组装、可降解性和电子传输的信息。我设想，这些多功能材料的创造和对如何利用它们来构建下一代电子产品的理解将成为一个变革性的平台，以应对影响健康和可持续发展的以前难以触及的挑战，并反过来在加拿大创造新的技术和市场。为此，我建议将重点放在以下三个相互关联的研究主题上，它们与自然科学和工程领域的挑战相一致：研究主题1：序列控制大分子电子自下而上生物电子的自组装通过与电子活性材料的多价相互作用连接定义明确的分子识别。将探索将顺序控制的电子传导大分子自组装成类似电子元件的结构，并由此产生的信号响应，以建立用于自主生物传感和调节的闭环系统，用于诊断和治疗。研究主旨2：用于生物电子接口的功能化瓶刷弹性体可植入电子设备的发展，如脑机接口，正在改变我们对疾病的理解和治疗，但由于机械和化学表面特性的不匹配，这些设备在长期植入方面失败。功能化瓶刷弹性体是一种用于构建生物电子器件的尚未开发的材料系统，其化学和机械性能都可以通过分子设计轻松调整。研究主旨3：将共轭聚合物生物降解为天然副产品生物可降解和可回收电子产品将改变我们的生活。除了暂时性，降解的副产品必须是无毒的和可生物吸收的。类胡萝卜素类似于低聚乙炔，由于其已知的单分子电导和生物降解性，是一种很有前途的构建材料。我的团队将建立一种新的半导体和导体聚合类别，这些半导体和导体可降解为天然副产品，如胡萝卜素。

Next-generation electronics will autonomously respond to local stimuli and be harmonious with the human body, opening doors for remarkable opportunities in environmental monitoring, advanced consumer products, and health diagnostics for personalized therapy. For example, fully biodegradable electronics promise to accelerate the integration of electronics with health by obviating the need for costly device recovery surgeries that also significantly increase infection risk. The underpinnings of such next-generation electronics is the development of new electronic materials with a wide suite of functional properties beyond our current toolkit. The overarching long-term vision of my research program is to leverage the rich palette of polymer chemistry to design new materials encoded with information for self-assembly, degradability, and electronic transport. I envision that the creation of these multifunctional materials and an understanding of how they are utilized to construct next-generation electronics will serve as a transformative platform to address previously inaccessible challenges impacting health and sustainability, and in turn create new technologies and markets in Canada. To this end, I propose to focus on three interrelated research thrusts, detailed below, which are aligned with the challenges within the natural sciences and engineering: Research Thrust 1: Self-assembly of sequence-controlled macromolecular electronics Bottom-up bioelectronics bridges well-defined molecular recognition via multivalent interactions with electronically active materials. The self-assembly of sequence-controlled electron-conducting macromolecules into constructs that resemble electronic components and the resulting signal response will be explored to build closed-loop modulation systems for autonomous biosensing and regulation, useful for diagnostics and therapy. Research Thrust 2: Functionalized bottlebrush elastomers for bioelectronic interfaces Advances in implantable electronics, such as brain-computer interfaces, are changing our understanding and treatment of diseases, but these devices fail in long-term implantation due to a mismatch in mechanical and chemical surface properties. Functionalized bottlebrush elastomers are an unexplored materials system for constructing bioelectronic devices, where both the chemical and mechanical properties can be readily tuned through molecular design. Research Thrust 3: Biodegradation of conjugated polymers into natural by-products Biodegradable and recyclable electronics will transform our lives. Beyond transience, the degradation by-products must be non-toxic and bioresorbable. Carotenoids, which resemble oligo-acetylene, are promising building blocks due to their documented single molecule conductance and biodegradability. My team will establish a new polymeric class of semiconductors and conductors that degrade into natural by-products, such as carotene.