Bioinspired Soft Materials

Brandeis University, Waltham MA

Investigators

Abstract

****Nontechnical abstract**** Nature acts as an exquisite engineer capable of creating structures and functionalities that are unmatched by anything manmade, such as the rupture-free passage of a virus through a cellular membrane, the ability of a highly motile white blood cells to seek and destroy an immunogenic target, or synchronously beating ciliary fields clearing debris from a lung. This research team draws inspiration from such biological capabilities. They seek to uncover the fundamental design principles underlying these and other remarkable biological functions, and to use this knowledge to create a new generation of biomaterials that are endowed with properties heretofore found only in living organisms. The research straddles the interface between biology and materials science. Starting from a few well-characterized building blocks of biochemical origin, they are building structures of increasing complexity to determine which components are required for the emergence of desired biological functionality. The project runs a multi-level outreach and education program, structured around a set of key activities: exhibits at the Discovery Museums of Acton, MA, field trips for high school students, a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates, minority mentoring program in conjunction with the Science Posse of New York, summer courses in advanced experimental techniques based on the project's shared facilities and provides career development opportunities for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. ****Technical abstract**** This project seeks to create new materials that are constructed from only a few simplified components, yet capture the remarkable functionalities found in living organisms. In addition to opening new directions in materials science research, these efforts serve to elucidate the minimal requirements for the emergence of biological function. This challenging endeavor draws on expertise in diverse and complementary experimental and theoretical techniques that span the physical and life sciences. This group of individuals are collaborating to combine elemental building blocks, such as motor proteins, DNA origami and filamentous virus, to understand the emergence of biomimetic functionalities that are highly sought-after in materials science and to synergistically engineer life-like materials. The goal of their first project, Membrane based Materials, is to uncover the design principles that cells use to shape and reconfigure membranes, and to apply these principles in order to engineer heterogeneous and reconfigurable membrane materials. To accomplish this they are exploiting the analogy between nanometer-sized lipid bilayers and micron-sized colloidal monolayers assembled from filamentous viruses or DNA origami rods. The goal of their second project, Biological Active Materials, is to create active analogs of quintessential soft matter systems including gels, liquids crystals, emulsions and vesicles using elemental force generators, such as motor proteins and monomer treadmilling. They are experimentally and theoretically characterizing the emergent properties of such materials, including their ability to convert chemical energy into mechanical work, perform locomotion, and undergo dynamical reconfiguration.