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.**

当您想到材料时，您可能会想到有用物体的构建块，例如用于建筑物的木材、用于衣服的布料或用于锅的铜。不可否认，材料已经从这些早期的自然例子发展到包括玻璃纤维、尼龙和钢等合成物质。随着我们的工程能力和需求的增加，对新型材料的需求也越来越大。一个例子是响应外部刺激的响应材料，例如压电材料，它会根据施加的电场而改变形状，或者药物胶囊，它会根据温度和 pH 值而融化以释放药物。在局部水平上微调材料特性和响应的能力是当前许多研究的目标，例如制造自愈系统，或规定微观或纳米运动的路径，这可以指导药物输送或激活到非常好的状态。 *****我们的研究计划是围绕这些交互式材料系统的想法而设计的，从大自然中寻找如何实现这些系统的灵感，并试图通过设计这些材料和材料来测试我们对这些设计原则的理解。从头开始的设备。*****胶原蛋白，基本结构蛋白在我们的身体中，提供了具有许多这些特性的生物材料的一个典型例子。胶原蛋白材料由单个蛋白质组装成坚固的纤维，就像绳子由许多细丝组成一样，胶原蛋白材料可以模拟骨骼的矿化，发送生物信号来指导细胞发育，并阻止转移癌细胞的运动。在其整个生物寿命中，我们的含有胶原蛋白的结缔组织经历更新过程，其中胶原纤维被居住在其外壳中的细胞分解和重建。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）镊子和离心力显微镜，来检查胶原蛋白的力、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，我们正在利用 DNA 和肽等生物构件构建新材料，目的是创造具有所需机械性能的组装材料。然后，我们测试这些如何选择性地改变以响应我们在实验室设计的分子马达，并通过实验和模拟进行探索。 ******我们的研究计划旨在阐明在纳米尺度和微米尺度上局部引导和控制材料特性改变的新方法。它通过整合一系列科学学科的尖端技术，并强调发展沟通技能以培养广泛的科学素养，为 HQP 提供出色的跨学科培训机会。**