This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training award supports the establishment at Johns Hopkins University of a program to provide the scientific foundations needed to design and create nanoprobes to study the cell and other biological systems. Nanoprobes are solid particles of nanoscopic dimensions with proteins or biomolecules attached to their surfaces. They can be designed to deliver genetic material or other biochemical molecules, and to be responsive to applied fields so researchers can steer them to desired locations within living cells. These tools will advance the scientific understanding of biophysical and biochemical events in cells, with potential to impact biotechnology and therapeutics industries. IGERT students will be trained to understand how particle properties change with particle diameter to create nanoprobes with desired optical, electrical, or magnetic properties. Biological nanoprobes must be compatible with the cell, and should remain as discrete entities rather than aggregating. Therefore, IGERT students will be trained in the science of small materials, colloid and interface science, and in modern laboratory tools to manipulate biomolecules. IGERT students will also be trained in cell signaling, or the science of how subcellular structures communicate, or cells communicate with each other. Thus students drawn from the physical and biological sciences and the engineering disciplines will be trained in fundamental principles and state-of-the-art experimental techniques at the interface of the physical chemical, materials science and biological sciences. They will be prepared to make unique contributions in their fields and will advance the use of nanotechnology in the study of biological systems. This IGERT is committed to outreach, and will work with academic leaders from CCNY, Cal Sate LA, the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, and the Center for Educational Outreach at JHU to attract students from underrepresented groups as IGERT doctoral students and as undergraduates to gain research experiences. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Ph.D. students trained in the program have made seminal basic science discoveries that have advanced our scientific understanding at the interface of nano and biology. Some of their discoveries have translational implications; for example: (a) cancer cell characterization and (b) isolation of circulating tumor cells from blood. Results from IGERT funding led to the publications of a large number of articles in high-profile journals, including Nature Communications, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Materials, Nature Methods, Nature Protocols, The FASEB Journal etc. IGERT fellows have authored papers reporting on: (a) the development of novel quantum dots for quantitative measurement of cell receptor expression on human cells, (b) the development of microfluidic-based devices for the rapid sorting of mixed populations of cells, (c) the development of collagen-based matrices, for the study of cell migration in 3D microenvironments, (d) the discovery of the perinuclear actin cap, which shapes the interphase nucleus and becomes aligned and organized during stem cell differentiation, (e) the demonstration of high-throughput ballistic nanorheolology (htBIN) for the rapid measurements of normal and diseased cells using particle-tracking microrheology, (f) the development of addressable electrodes, for the controlled release of adherent cells from engineered substrates, (g) the development of multiplexed peptides of combined imaging and drug delivery, (h) the development of microchannels, for the study of cell migration in physiologically-relevant microenvironments under chemotactic gradients, (i) development of mathematical analysis along with force-spectroscopy and flow-based adhesion assays to extract the association and dissociation kinetic constants of receptor-ligand binding, to name a few research outcomes. Many of our IGERT fellows have already launched successful careers in the industrial setting, whereas several others are currently doing their postdoctoral training with the ultimate objective of pursuing an academic career.
