Synthetic Mucins A versatile new responsive material
Abstract
Mucins are glycoproteins that are produced by the endothelial cells of all animals, and have critical and diverse functions, including forming defensive barriers against pathogens, lubrication and adhesion, directing biomineralization, and controlling immune response. The US Department of Defense has a need for new systems with many of these properties, and mucins could form the technological foundation for a new class of advanced materials to meet future DoD soft matter requirements. Despite their natural abundance and advantageous properties, very little is known about the structure of animal mucins and the chemical origins of their activity, and there has been little systematic study of the chemical structure of animal mucins and even less effort devoted to developing synthetic analogues. To address this issue, the three major goals of this project will be to (1) study the structures and properties of a diverse set of animal mucins, and in doing so standardize a high throughput work flow, so that mucins from different sources can be compared and structure activity relationships derived; (2) synthesize and study synthetic mucins in an effort to emulate the beneficial properties of natural mucins in artificial materials, and (3) create a high throughput platform for assessing mucin behavior in parallel. To accomplish these goal, we will adopt an interdisciplinary approach that combines techniques from chemistry, structural biology, and material science, and we have assembled a team of collaborators who will assist in these efforts. This approach will result in a feedback loop, where the information derived from natural mucins informs the rational design of synthetic mucins. The results of these efforts will be an understanding of how complex properties emerge in natural materials, and a new class of scalable, synthetic materials for addressing emerging soft material DoD needs related to adhesion, lubrication, managing the biotic-abiotic interfaces.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 14, 2022
- Source ID
- FA95501910220
Entities
People
- Adam B Braunschweig
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Research Foundation of The City University of New York
- United States Air Force