PI's objectives are to establish a biomedical engineering research and training program dedicated towards the development of novel artificial cells as drug/protein/gene delivery systems. He hypothesizes that encapsulation of naturally occurring cytoskeletal polymers along with naturally occurring regulatory cytoskeletal severing and cross-linking proteins inside liposomes will induce the formation of an artificial cell. Use of these regulatory proteins will allow me to engineer cytoskeletal polymer length, and crosslink density. This will consequently influence the three dimensional cytoskeletal network's structure, and mechanical attributes. The resulting encapsulated cytoskeletal network's structure will impart its mechanical stability to the vesicle bilayer making it mechanically stable. These mechanically strengthened hybrid vesicles will have the unique ability to dynamically respond to externally generated shear forces through rearrangement of their cytoskeletal network. In essence these vesicles will self-heal themselves if sheared past their yield strain.
The educational component of his goals is to train underrepresented African-American Undergraduate students with this award. Students will have the ability to participate in all aspects of the proposed research activities. Currently, there exists a shortage of minorities in the biomedical sciences. This proposal will help reverse this deficit.
