Design and real-time characterization of topologically active DNA-based materials
Abstract
The frontier of materials research is to engineer non-equilibrium active materials that can sense, respond, and morph to create active work. Such materials can enable resilient self-healing aircraft and bridges; adaptable self-activating PPE; responsive purification, filtration and flow control in pipelines; and manless search-and-rescue devices that can move and change shape on-demand. Our unique approach to this problem is to use time-varying macromolecular topology to control the rheological and structural properties of composite biomaterials, thereby engineering autonomous biomaterials that can perform programmable activity. DNA is the ideal candidate for this strategy as it naturally exists in different topological states – supercoiled, circular and linear – with enzymes that can convert one topology to another. Further, DNA is highly compatible with a wide range of environments, making it an ideal conduit to confer mechanical tunability into other biological or synthetic materials. We will capitalize on these unique robustness features of DNA to engineer and interrogate active biomaterials that can self-alter their mechanics and structure by enzymatically-driven topological conversion of DNA. We will create concentrated solutions of supercoiled and circular DNA and integrate enzymes that alter their topological state in a tunable time-dependent manner. We will incorporate these dense topologically-active DNA solutions into systems of rigid biopolymer rods and nano-colloids. In parallel, we will design a suite of optical tweezers microrheology and microscopy techniques to precisely characterize the time-varying rheological and structural properties of the active systems during enzymatic activity. We expect to measure completely unique and emergent non-equilibrium mechanics and structure that we can tune with macromolecular knobs. This highly adaptable and transferrable approach to active matter can be incorporated into numerous materials to produce novel non-equilibrium properties and responses. The techniques we will develop will also be broadly applicable to the wide variety of active materials currently under intense investigation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 07, 2023
- Source ID
- FA95502110361
Entities
People
- Rae Robertson-Anderson
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of San Diego