Spatially Encoded Hard-Soft Colloidal Nanomaterials

With the support of the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Catherine Murphy of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is developing methods to coat spherical and rod-shaped inorganic nanomaterials with spatial and chemical control. Selective chemistry on nanorod sides or tips generates patchy nanomaterials that are analogous to antibodies, which are nanoscale objects that can recognize large molecules such as specific proteins.

A small library of proteins that should bind to specific patches is being screened for selectivity with the coated nanomaterials. Aggregation of the protein, alpha-synuclein, a brain-abundant protein that changes shape when binding to nanoscale lipid vesicles, is associated with the neurodegenerative condition known as Parkinson’s Disease. The ability of alpha-synuclein to aggregate after binding to either soft or hard lipid vesicle mimics is being assessed for future applications in either detection or therapeutic intervention for neurodegenerative disease.

Graduate and undergraduate students working on this project will learn to synthesize, characterize, and measure the biochemical properties of nanomaterials. An on-ramp to science program is being established that targets undergraduates who are interested in science but are new to the field. This program aims to broaden the participation of students from groups that have been historically underrepresented in science.

Professional development activities to improve the functioning of the scientific enterprise in terms of research ethics and program climate are being developed and will be discussed with both students and faculty to allow them to thrive.

This research involves expanding the seed-mediated growth of anisotropic nanostructures such as gold nanorods to nanoscale conformal and patchy coatings. Both hard calcium phosphate mineral and soft hydrogel and water-soluble coatings will be examined for their ability to maintain patchy behavior on molecularly functionalized gold nanorods. Some of these patches exhibit affinity to specific proteins, so protein imaging experiments will be used to understand how patchy nanomaterials lead to patchy protein adsorption.

Alpha-Synuclein binding to and molecular display at these soft and hard nanomaterials will be measured via dynamic light scattering, plasmonics, and mass spectrometry. Subsequent fibrillization experiments will be evaluated using standard optical assays, dynamic light scattering, and electron microscopy.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.