Our overall goal is to develop a system for massively parallel manufacture of materials, from the molecular level up, which contains integrated functional nanostructures (FNS). The system is biomimetic and is based on self- assembly of rigid, rod-shaped proteins. Useful protein rod units are redesigned genetically from their natural DNA segments and produced biologically. They will self-assemble in regulated stages, to predesigned shapes, with spacings in the range of 5-100nm in length. We call this process biomolecular carpentry. With this grant we will prove the concept by producing the natural rods and variants thereof and measure physical characteristics such as the Young's Moduli of bending and stretching in various environments, using atomic force microscopy and chemical force microscopy. We will also measure the diffusion constants, flexibility dimensions and orientation of the individual rods in aqueous solution and in the presence of AC electric fields of various frequencies. In addition, we will examine the kinetics of self-assembly of sets of rods to find the rate constant(s) of this process in various environments to better understand the process and to maximize it. Dynamic light scattering will be employed to enable us to measure these properties in a noninvasive way and to follow the reaction in real time. The technology using these protein units has the potential to form a basis for an integrated system for the design and manufacture of novel functional nanostructures built into new types of material from the molecular level up. In addition this technology, which should help to supplant some other outmoded and polluting systems, is environmentally friendly and its products are recyclable. To accomplish these goals a team of principal investigators from Departments of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Electro- optics and Chemistry and Chemical Biology has been organized.
