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THE SPITZER LECTURE
From Nature and back again...
Giving new life to materials for energy, electronics and the environment
Angela M. Belcher
Professor, Dept. of Materials Science, Engineering and Biological Engineering,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Abstract
WOrganisms have been making exquisite inorganic materials for over 500 million years. Although these materials have many desired physical properties such as strength, regularity, and environmental benign processing, the types of materials that organisms have evolved to work with are limited. However, there are many properties of living systems that could be potentially harnessed by researchers to make advanced technologies that are smarter, more adaptable, and that are synthesized to be compatible with the environment. One approach to designing future technologies which have some of the properties that living organisms use so well, is to evolve organisms to work with a more diverse set of building blocks. These materials could be designed to address many scientific and technological problems in electronics, military, medicine, and energy applications. Examples include a virus enabled lithium ion rechargeable battery we recently built that has many improved properties over conventional batteries, as well as materials for solar and display technologies. This talk will address conditions under which organism first evolved to make materials and scientific approaches to move beyond naturally evolved materials to genetically imprint advanced technologies.
Peptoid sequences were systemically varied in order to study surface activity effects of varying peptoid helicity,/ N/-terminal side chain chemistry and sequence length, as well as the side chain structures used within the hydrophobic C-terminal helix. The secondary structures of the peptoid SP-C mimics are analyzed in organic solution by CD spectroscopy. Langmuir-Wilhelmy surface balance experiments, epifluorescence videomicroscopy studies, and pulsating bubble surfactometry are used to characterize the surface activity and surface film morphology of the mimics in combination with a biomimetic phospholipid formulation. These results provide us with the first comprehensive structure-function relationships for peptoid-based analogues of surfactant protein C, as well as strong evidence that they offer significant promise for use in a synthetic replacement for animal-derived surfactants. There are several other potential applications for a safe and non-immunogenic surfactant formulation with these properties, other than treating respiratory distress, including protection against ventilator-induced lung injury, drug delivery to the lungs, and treatment of ear infections.
URL
http://dmse.mit.edu/faculty/faculty/belcher/
Time and Location
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008, 3:30 pm
SAL 101
Reception Following the Lecture
The Scientific Community is Cordially Invited.
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