Interactive materials: guiding rational design through biomolecular characterization

交互式材料：通过生物分子表征指导合理设计

• 批准号: RGPIN-2015-05545
• 负责人: Forde, Nancy
• 金额: $ 3.5万
• 依托单位: Simon Fraser University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=650936
• 关键词: Interactive; materials; guiding; rational; design

When you think about materials, building blocks for useful objects might spring to mind, such as wood for buildings, cloth for clothing, or copper for pots. Undeniably, materials have advanced from these early natural examples to include synthetic substances such as fibreglass, nylon and steel. As our engineering capabilities and needs increase, there is ever more demand for novel materials. One example is responsive materials that respond to external stimuli, such as piezoelectrics, which change shape in response to applied electric fields, or drug capsules, which melt to release medicine in response to temperature and pH. The ability to fine-tune material properties and response at a local level is an aim of much current research, for example to make self-healing systems, or to prescribe pathways for microscopic or nanoscopic motion, which could guide drug delivery or activation to very specific locations.******Our research program is designed around ideas of these interactive materials systems, looking to nature for inspiration as to how these can be accomplished, and seeking to test our understanding of these design principles by engineering such materials and devices from scratch.******Collagen, the fundamental structural protein in our body, offers a prime example of a biological material exhibiting many of these properties. Assembled from individual proteins to make strong fibres, as a rope is made of many tiny threads, collagen materials template the mineralization of bone, send biological signals to direct cellular development, and impede the motion of metastasizing cancer cells. Throughout their biological lifespan, our collagen-containing connective tissues undergo processes of renewal, where collagen fibrils are broken down and rebuilt by cells living in their housing. In our research, we design and use molecular manipulation tools, such as holographic optical (laser) tweezers and a centrifuge force microscope, to examine the interplay between force, structure and breakdown of collagen. ******To test our understanding of operational principles, we are building new materials from biological building blocks such as DNA and peptides, with an aim of creating assembled materials of desired mechanical properties. We then test how these are selectively altered in response to molecular motors that we engineer in the lab and explore through experiment and simulation. ******Our research program aims to elucidate novel means by which to locally guide and control alteration of material properties at the nanoscale and microscale. It offers outstanding interdisciplinary training opportunities for HQP through its integration of cutting-edge techniques from a range of scientific disciplines and by emphasizing the development of communication skills to foster broad scientific literacy.**

当您考虑材料时，有用物体的构建块可能会浮现在脑海，例如建筑物的木材，衣服的布或锅铜。不可否认，材料已经从这些早期的自然示例中发展出来，包括玻璃纤维，尼龙和钢等合成物质。随着我们的工程能力和需求的增加，对新型材料的需求越来越多。一个例子是对外部刺激的响应材料，例如压电电源，它们会因响应于施加的电场而改变形状或药物胶囊，它们融化以响应温度和pH释放药物。当前的许多研究的目的，例如建立自我修复系统，或开出微观或纳米镜面运动的途径，可以指导这些互动材料的想法，以确定这些材料的想法，并设计出围绕这些材料的想法，并设计出对这些材料的设计，这些方法是为了确定这些材料的设计，并且可以指导这些材料的设计，从而使这些材料的创作和设置为这些材料设计，否从头开始的设备。******胶原蛋白是我们体内的基本结构蛋白，它提供了一种生物材料的主要例子，展示了许多这些特性。从单个蛋白质组装以制成较强的纤维，因为绳索是由许多细节制成的，胶原蛋白材料模板是骨骼的矿化，将生物信号发送到直接细胞发育，并阻碍转移性癌细胞的运动。在整个生物学寿命中，我们的含胶原蛋白结缔组织都经历了更新的过程，在那里胶原蛋白原纤维被居住在其住房中的细胞分解并重建。在我们的研究中，我们设计和使用分子操纵工具，例如全息光学（激光）镊子和离心机显微镜，以检查胶原蛋白的力，结构和分解之间的相互作用。 ******为了测试我们对操作原理的理解，我们正在从生物构建区（例如DNA和肽）中构建新材料，目的是创建所需的机械性能的组装材料。然后，我们测试如何根据我们在实验室中设计的分子电动机选择性地改变它们，并通过实验和仿真进行探索。 *****我们的研究计划旨在阐明纳米级和微观材料特性的局部指导和控制变化的新颖手段。它通过从一系列科学学科的尖端技术整合以及强调沟通技巧以促进广泛的科学素养的发展，为HQP提供出色的跨学科培训机会。**