THRUST AREA: Nanobiotechnology

Nanoscale science and technology enable us to view living systems at scales that were previously beyond the range of quantitative research, and to intervene at this scale with an unprecedented precision and effect. The ability to examine biological processes at the nanoscale will thus yield new experimental, theoretical and simulation tools, and will provide fresh opportunities for the development of nanostructured materials, nanodevices and systems, which can eventually benefit biology and biomedical applications. As a young and emerging field of research, nanobiotechnology also concerns the utilization of biological systems, such as cells, cellular components, nucleic acids, and proteins, to fabricate new generation of functional nanostructured and mesoscopic materials. The nanobiotechnology research is truly interdisciplinary, which requires new alliances between disparate disciplines, including chemists, physicists, biologists, mathematicians, engineers, and a host of others.

Research Activities

Current Nanobiotechnology research at the USC NanoCenter focuses on the four areas:

• Bionanoparticle technology: Bionanoparticles (BNPs) are naturally-occurring, self-assembled nanostructures such as viruses and hollow proteins that are amenable to genetic and chemical modification. Professors Q. Wang and C. J. Murphy at USC, in collaboration with Professor M. G. Finn at the Scripps Research Institute, will lead teams of students and researchers to explore the application of BNPs in materials and biomedical sciences. Currently, the BNP research at USC is concentrated on three general research directions of both fundamental and practical interest: (1) hierarchical self-assembly of BNP; (2) synthesis of BNP-based hybrid materials; and (3) BNPs as delivery vehicles. A “Keck Open Laboratory for Bionanoparticle Technology Discovery and Development” will be established to facilitate the collaborative efforts in using biological nanoparticles as scaffolds and building blocks for materials science and biomedical applications.
  

• Bionanocomposite and tissue engineering: The challenge of tissue engineering is to develop suitable replacement materials/scaffolds with desirable mechanical strength, porosity and bioactivity to allow cell adhesion, migration, growth and proliferation, resulting in excellent integration with surrounding tissues. Our researches seek to develop novel nano polymer/biomolecule hybrid materials for such purpose.
  
  For example, a novel in situ crosslinkable terpolymer has been developed in the Biomimetic Materials and Tissue Engineering laboratories (Director: E. Jabbari). By incorporating a biologically inspired amino acid sequence that specifically binds to the surface of apatite nanoparticles to provide interfacial bonding, the hydrogel nanocomposite provides structural support to the reconstructed region while degrading concurrently with the migration of the bone marrow stem cells to provide the space for tissue regeneration. In addition, self-assembled block copolymers, which possess unique orders on the nanometer scale, will be used as templates for bionanoparticle assembly, which will lead to a new type of bionanocomposite materials.
  
  
   

• Drug delivery, diagnosis and sensing: Nanostructured materials, such as inorganic nanoparticles, smart imprinted polymers, supramolecular complexes, and bionanoparticles, have been employed for the purpose of drug delivery, diagnosis and sensing. For example, in Professor J. Ritters laboratory, a novel noninvasive drug delivery method has been developed with ferromagnetic wire implanted under the skin next to the common carotid artery to assist in the collection of magnetic drug carrier particles containing magnetic nanoparticles at this site using an external magnet.
  
  
   

• Toxicology and environmental impact of nanostructures: Professor L. Ferguson has been awarded, along with other PIs, a $334,750 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to study the “Chemical and Biological Behavior of Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWNT) in Estuarine Sedimentary Systems”. The research seeks to determine the factors controlling the fate of SWNTs and their synthetic by-products in estuarine seawater, sediment, and sediment-ingesting organisms. The toxicity of these nanomaterials will be assessed for suspension- and deposit-feeding estuarine invertebrate models in seawater suspension and estuarine sediments. Active researches in the study of the toxicology and environmental impact of other nanostructured materials are undergoing at UCS by a collection of professors

Seminar and Outreach Activities

• Bionanotechnology Seminar Series
   

• Adventures in Bionanotechnology - Carolina Master Scholar Adventure Series (http://ced.sc.edu/adventures/courses.html)
  Would you like to know how the novel technology in biology and nanoscience will affect our life? Do you want to obtain hands-on experience in the research of biology and nanotechnology? Adventures in bionanotechnology will offer you this opportunity and more at the internationally recognized USC NanoCenter.
   

• Summer Workshop for Bionanotechnology
  In order to encourage the young generation to pursue careers in science, we plan to create a unique opportunity for high school students to get interested in and to participate in physical or biological science or nanoscience at an early stage. Summers are important opportunities in-between school years. We will organize a “Summer Workshop of Bionanotechnology” for high school students and teachers. The participants will have chance to learn some of the basics of nanoscience, organic chemistry, molecular biology and materials science from the cutting-age research program in Nanocenter of University of South Carolina. The selection of the participants will base on the intra and extra curricular performance of the student. The oncoming programs will be announced soon.