This CAREER proposal aims to develop a bio-inspired and sustainable material called nano-dendrimers. This protein-based technology allows different types of functional molecules and nanoparticles to be assembled in a highly ordered fashion. This technology will help advance our basic understanding on magnetic and plasmonic properties of nanoparticle-based assembly. The approach will also find wide applications in areas such as drug delivery, imaging, tissue engineering, and catalysis. Integrated into the proposal is a vigorous education plan that provides education opportunities at different levels. It aims to improve higher education by training well-rounded graduate and undergraduate students in nanobiotechnology. The plan also includes promoting public science learning by bringing state-of-the-art research progress to the public in an appealing manner.
The main research objective of the CAREER proposal is to develop a novel, bio-inspired assembly technology called nano-dendrimers that allows specific numbers of nanoparticles to cluster into higher nanostructures. The central player, ferritin, is a protein nanocage that contains 24 subunits. Ferritins can be engineered, through either chemical or genetic methods, to present exactly 24 coupling ligands, such as biotin, on the surface. The resulting ferritins will go through a unique hybridization approach with native ferritins to achieve derivatives presenting discrete numbers of coupling ligands. Using the hybrid ferritins as building blocks (referred to as FBBs), one can construct different supramolecular structures in a manner similar to dendrimer growth. Meanwhile, the interiors of ferritins can be loaded with a wide range of functionalities. Multiple cargos can be loaded into separated FBBs and then integrated into nano-dendrimers with high accuracy. The approach will also find wide applications in areas such as drug delivery, imaging, tissue engineering, and catalysis. The proposed research is highly interdisciplinary and provides many cutting-edge research opportunities. It will train graduate and undergraduate students who understand a broad range of multi-disciplinary approaches and attack problems with a wide range of tools. It also provide education opportunities to high school and K-12 students with an emphasis on minority students.
