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| Project ID/Title: | 07-14. Self-Assembly and Channel Protein Incorporation in Biomimetic Block Copolymer Membranes | | Advisor: | Joel R. Fried | | Academic Title: | Professor of Chemical Engineering; Dual Professor of Genome Science | | Department: | Chemical & Materials Engineering | | Department Website: | www.eng.uc.edu/dept_cme/ | | Email: | Joel.Fried@uc.edu | | Phone: | 513-556-2790 | | Fax: | 513-556-2569 | | Graduate Program(s): | Chemical Engineering | | Co-Advisor(s): | Carlo D. Montemagno, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Dean of Engineering | | Project Description: | This project focuses on the preparation of robust membrane sensors and other devices through the incorporation of a variety of membrane proteins in vesicles or planar sheets of amphiphilic triblock copolymers (biomimetic analogs of phospholipids). Of interest are the mechanism of self-assembly of these triblock copolymers in water and the effect of membrane environment on the conformation and functioning of the membrane proteins. In these studies, both simulation and experiment will be used. Both high-performance atomistic molecular dynamics and coarse-grain models will be used to study the self-assembly process of a variety of diblock and triblock copolymers. In addition, block copolymer membranes will be formed in silico and membrane proteins inserted following procedures used in studies of phospholipid systems to study conformational changes and membrane performance that may occur due to the influence of different block compositions and block lengths on the protein environment. Results of simulations will be compared with those obtained from a variety of experimental methods including solid-state NMR measurements and conductivity measurements of actual films. |
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