National Center for Design of
Biomimetic Nanoconductors

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"The Promise of Supported Membrane Technology for Nanomedicine"

Date: November 15, 2007
Time: 11:00 AM
At: 5602 Beckman Institute

Abstract

The National Center for the Design of Biomimetic Nanoconductors (NCDBN) came into existence in September 2005 as one of four founding NIH Roadmap Nanomedicine Development Centers. In its first two years, NCDBN has laid the groundwork for applying membrane technology to medicine in the following ways:

• We have developed the ability to build selective protein channels and transporters on a beta-barrel scaffold. (One particularly advanced project is a stable anion selective channel engineered on an alpha-hemolysin scaffold, which we believe may provide a basis for direct protein therapy for cystic fibrosis. We are especially interested in opportunities to insert this channel into epithelia, macrophages, and animal models for CF.)
• We have developed protototypes for the “functional protocell”. The functional protocell is a nanoengineered next-generation liposome-like structure . It consists of a membrane that includes both proteins and lipids, constructed on a porous inorganic or polymeric support that serves as an intercellular milieu and contains whatever intracellular machinery and reactants are desired. We now have working prototypes for two geometries of functional protocell, a) a free-standing nonpolar protocell, and b) a network of polar or nonpolar protocells connected into a syncytium. In the prototype syncytial network, the cell interiors are aqueous solution, and the cells are bathed in oil, providing lossless transmission of electrical signals down a “cable” of connected cells.
• We have developed the ability to engineer nanoporous supports for membranes in a variety of external configurations, with respect to both overall shape and nanopore properties.
• We have developed computational techniques to understand and predict membrane channel and transporter properties.
• We have developed computational techniques to understand and predict domain formation in chemically heterogenous membranes.
• We have developed scenarios for the application of our technologies to a variety of clinical issues, including in addition to cystic fibrosis, infectious disease, oxidative damage to membranes, improvements in hemodialysis, and development of biocompatible nanoengineered systems for energy transduction (possible applications---a synthetic retina, a biocompatible and metabolically rechargeable battery for powering neural prostheses).

NCDBN is now moving into a stage in which it is seeking active collaboration with relevant translational and clinical researchers, both to apply our technologies to focused medical research, and also to help us direct our future basic science and technology activities in ways that will ultimately result in effective therapeutic interventions. NIH has set aside some funds in the near term specifically to support such collaborations http://nanomedcenter.org/ The deadline for submission of letter of intent (actually a five page pre-proposal) for responding to this solicitation is December 10, 2007. It is expected that there will also be other potential sources of funding represented by later solicitations.

This talk will present the research and development activities of NCDBN. Dr. Jakobsson is also available to talk with individuals or laboratory groups about possible collaborative activities with NCDBN.

Contacts: Eric Jakobsson, jake@ncsa.uiuc.edu
Dave Mattson (NCDBN Programs Coordinator) dmattson@uiuc.edu , (217) 244-8362
www.nanoconductor.org

 

The National Center for Design of Biomimetic Nanoconductors is funded by Grant Number PHS 2 PN2 EY016570B from the National Institutes of Health through the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research and is based at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Partner institutions include Yale University, University of Southern California, University of Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology, Sandia National Laboratories, Argonne National Laboratory, Oxford University, Wabash College, University of California, Davis, nanoHUB at Purdue University, and the University of New Mexico.