Hiring Proteins, Viruses and Microbes to Work on Bio-Nano-Science

and Technology-- Interfacing Biochemistry, Chemistry,

Materials Science & Medicine

Chuanbin MaoDepartment of Chemistry & Biochemistry

E-mail: cbmao@ou.eduTel: 405-325-4385

http://chem.ou.edu/Details/Personnel/Faculty/Chuanbin-Mao.html

Questions My Research Tries to Answer• How biochemistry, molecular and micro-biology can be applied to build

unique, useful nanostructures---Use Nature’s Design to Make Biomimetic Materials

Biomimetic fabrication of nanomaterials with optical, electronic, magnetic properties that enable biological and medical applications by using biological nanostructures ( e.g., proteins, viruses andflagellar filaments)

• How nanotechnology can be used to diagnose, prevent and treat diseases (e.g. cancers and bone diseases)

--Nano-bombs illuminating, targeting and burning cancer cells and tumors Key=bio-recognition + nano-property

Nano-Medicine: cancer treatment and bone regeneration; targeted delivery of drug and gene using nanoparticles as carrier;

--Building a material mimicking bone tissueNano-Medicine: artificial tissue=ECM-like nanostructured materials+

cells+ factors (e.g., growth factor for inducing blood vessel formation)Key=self-assembly + controlled mineralization

Recombinant Display of Foreign Peptides or Proteins on Phage

M. B. Irving et al, Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, 2001, 5:314-324

pIII display: Peptides fused to

5 copies of pIII pVIII display:Peptides fused to pVIII

Full display —fused to all ~2700 copiesHybrid display —fused to a portion of ~2700 copiesMultiple display — different peptides fused to pVIII

pIX display:Peptides fused to

5 copies of pIX

DNA

pVIII

pIII

E8 PO43-

Ca2+

HAP

a b c d

Hierarchical Higher-Order Assembly

Mao group, 2008

Phage bundle MineralizedPhage bundle

MineralizedPhage bundleAfter removal of minerals

Mao group, 2008

Bacterial flagella:Naturally occurring protein nanotube that is self-assembled from thousands of

copies of protein subunit, each of which can display specific peptide

20 nm

(b)

200 nm

(c)(a)

Cross-section of protein nanotubeA section of protein nanotube

TEM image ofProtein nanotubeattached to cell

Protein nanotube isolated from cells(TEM image)

8000x, 80kV

20 nmproteinsubunit

Mao group, 2008

Nanochains: Au nanoparticles are assembled into chainsby using filamentous biological template

Mao group, 2008

Nanochains: Au nanorods (AuNRs) are assembled into a chain in a head to tail format by using a filamentous biological template.

Mao group, 2008

Effect of gold NP size on the alignment

50nm 100nm

Alignment of 2.6 nm Au NPs with flagella

Alignment of ~50 nm Au NPs with flagella

Smaller Au NPs are aligned better on flagella

Mao group, 2008

Acknowledgements

Dr. Mao’s group: Aihua Liu, Abbineni Gopal, Fuke Wang, Harold Castano, Dong Li, Penghe

Qiu, Binrui Cao, Haiqin Lu, Pascaline Ngweniform, Murali Murugesan, Tao He

Financial Support:National Science Foundation (NSF)Department of Defense (DoD) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST)University of Oklahoma

Facilities: Samuel Roberts Noble EM Lab, C-SPIN, DLS (Grady), Zeta-potential (Dormer)

Collaborators: Matt Johnson (OU), Phil Klebba (OU), Salete Newton (OU), Zhisheng Shi

(OU), Andew Hayhurst (SW Foundation for Biomed. Res), Valery Petrenko(Auburn Univ.)