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

这项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，这种材料可以从水溶液中自组装，形成稳定的生物膜和结构，并且也可以对轻微的刺激（如光）做出反应，以影响局部可逆的结构转变。总体目标在于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各种生物医学或生物工程应用中通过该界面获得的控制程度。这些新的聚合物组件将以其柔软、湿润、柔顺的可调性模仿真实的生物组织，而少量加入的光响应形状变化偶氮染料模仿我们的视紫质/视网膜系统，使视觉成为可能，提供直接的光生物通信接口。从实用的角度来看，由于其温和的可见光化学功能和其固有的柔软、湿润的生物相容性的结合，这些新型聚合物被认为是信号、传感和控制邻近生物活动的“智能”表面。从基础科学的角度来看，这些新材料及其研究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的界面生物功能以及它们之间的交流做出基本的了解。这些新材料由水溶性和生物源成分组成，当它们自组装在一起时，可以形成不溶的、稳定的、坚固的聚合物材料。这种控制溶解度到稳定性的转变允许有前途的天然聚合物（丝绸和其他蛋白质，壳聚糖和其他多糖）首次被纳入，以保持其所需的特性，同时防止其在水中的溶解性，从而应用于改进的细胞培养基，并最终在体内作为植入物的生物相容性涂层。这一提议代表了我们研究的第一次扩展，从更简单的人工模拟生物聚合物，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完全天然的（即：fda批准的，甚至可食用的）用于体内生物医学应用的聚合物组件，这些组件完全软键结合在一起，从而保持其生物相容性和低毒性。这可以进一步允许软束缚的化学品货物轻松、轻松地装载和释放。这个研究项目的长期愿景在于开发新的仿生和仿生材料，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，然后探索对生物医学应用中这种界面的控制程度，现在使用自然作为软有机材料的灵感，和光作为通信媒介。

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.