CAREER: Vesicle Growth Driven by Catalytic Lipid Synthesis

职业：催化脂质合成驱动囊泡生长

• 批准号: 1254611
• 负责人: Neal Devaraj
• 金额: $ 65万
• 依托单位: University of California-San Diego
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2020-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1254611&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Vesicle; Growth; Driven; Catalytic

In this project funded by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Neal Devaraj of the University of California, San Diego will study catalytic coupling reactions that can drive the self-assembly and competitive growth of phospholipid assemblies. The main research idea is that in-situ catalytic lipid synthesis within vesicles should provide a route to assemblies capable of selective growth and division. The experimental approach includes studying and developing chemistries capable of generating phospholipid in-situ, synthesizing novel catalysts that associate themselves with specific vesicles, and monitoring vesicle competition and growth phenomenon. Understanding the chemistry required for driving vesicle growth would enhance our knowledge of biomimetic assemblies and could reveal chemical mechanisms that were essential to the origin of life. The broader impacts involve developing an educational component integrating the proposed vesicle research with an existing K-20 outreach effort at UC San Diego. In particular, there will be a focus on reaching populations typically underrepresented in STEM fields. These outreach efforts will be significant in their impact on K-12 STEM education in the San Diego area, particularly with respect to exposing a broad range of students and teachers to origin of life and supramolecular chemistry topics. How sets of reactive small molecules led to the origin of life is "Grand Challenge" a problem in chemistry, and the proposed studies seek to improve our fundamental understanding of the chemical processes underlying this phenomenon. Knowledge generated from these studies also could guide efforts toward the synthesis of self-replicating materials which could lead to new types of materials with advanced properties.

在这个由加利福尼亚大学的化学部的大分子，超分子和纳米化学计划资助的项目中，圣地亚哥大学将研究催化偶联反应，这些反应可以推动磷脂组件的自组装和竞争性增长。 主要的研究思想是，囊泡内的原位催化脂质合成应为能够选择性生长和分裂的组装提供途径。实验方法包括研究和开发能够产生原位磷脂的化学物质，合成与特定囊泡相关的新型催化剂，并监测囊泡竞争和生长现象。 了解驱动囊泡生长所需的化学条件将增强我们对仿生组装的了解，并可能揭示对生命起源至关重要的化学机制。更广泛的影响涉及开发一个教育部分，该教育部分将拟议的囊泡研究与加州大学圣地亚哥分校的现有K-20外展工作相结合。 特别是，将重点放在茎场中通常不足的人群到达人口。这些宣传工作将在对圣地亚哥地区K-12 STEM教育的影响方面具有重要意义，尤其是在暴露广泛的学生和老师的生活和超分子化学主题方面。反应性小分子如何导致生命的起源是“巨大的挑战”化学问题，而拟议的研究旨在提高我们对这种现象基础的化学过程的基本理解。这些研究产生的知识还可以指导努力综合自我复制材料，这可能导致具有先进特性的新型材料。