This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Many proteins in nature, such as silk and elastin, have superior physical properties. Inspired by the superior properties of these proteins, the goal of this project is to investigate an Evaporation-Assisted Plasma Lithography process for assembling biomimetic protein structures. The parameters that control the assembly process will be studied systematically. The assembled biomimetic protein structures will be investigated by different characterization techniques. The proposed work will lead to a novel nanomanufacturing strategy for biomimetic proteins, and will provide the foundation for utilizing the potential of biomimetic proteins in numerous engineering and biomedical applications in the future.
This study will impact the manufacturing processes of many biomimetic proteins and nanoscale building blocks. The combination of the unique characteristics of biomimetic proteins and the innovative nanomanufacturing technique will open up new possibilities in creating hybrid microsystems by integrating bottom-up created building blocks and top-down fabricated micro and nano platforms. The proposed process will form the foundation for a new class of smart microdevices with broad applicability in manufacturing, bioengineering, and materials science. In addition, the visualization nature of guided manufacturing of nanostructures could provide appealing demonstrations to interest a diverse group of students and the general public. The research activity will be integrated into different education and outreach activities including graduate and undergraduate courses, undergraduate research experiences, and outreach and minority programs.
