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MatSE Soft Materials Seminar - "Engineering polymer networks to control biomolecular transport"

Event Type
Seminar/Symposium
Sponsor
Materials Science and Engineering Department
Date
Apr 27, 2021   4:00 pm  
Speaker
Danielle J. Mai, Chemical Engineering Department, Stanford University
Views
31

"Engineering polymer networks to control biomolecular transport"

New materials that control specific biomolecular transport are central to numerous technologies including biosensors, bioseparations, and tissue engineering. Natural systems such as nuclear pores routinely regulate molecular transport with remarkable specificity (>99.9% of proteins rejected) and speed (1,000 proteins per second per pore), but the biophysical mechanisms underlying selective nuclear transport remain unclear. The central channel of the nuclear pore is filled with a matrix of disordered proteins; this matrix inspired the development of a selective transport model based on protein binding, diffusion, and solubility in a polymer network.

In this seminar, I will present a transport model used to investigate selective transport phenomena in nucleopore-inspired polymer networks. In this binding–diffusion model, target biomolecules exhibit diffusive behavior in bound and unbound molecular states, whereas inert biomolecules exist only in an unbound state. Calculation of the flux ratio of target and inert molecules across a broad parameter space reveals key requirements for selective transport to occur in polymer networks. The model predicts two key principles for selective biomolecular transport by a polymer network: (1) entropic repulsion of non-interacting molecules and (2) affinity-mediated permeation of interacting molecules through a walking mechanism. These principles guide the design and synthesis of artificial, nucleopore-inspired polymer gels that replicate the selective transport function of nuclear pore proteins. Biophysical characterization reveals the importance of entropic size exclusion, moderate binding affinity, and bound-state diffusion processes in selective hydrogel permeability and transport, in agreement with predictions of the selective transport model. Overall, this work presents a new paradigm for selective transport that critically enables the design of polymer hydrogels to control the transport of multi-receptor biomolecules including therapeutic proteins, immunoglobulins, and broad classes of biotoxins.

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