Ziel
Virus particles are increasingly used as building blocks for composite materials. Surface modification of these biological nanoparticles can be accomplished by genetic engineering and offers the possibility to combine directed evolution of molecular function with the assembly of more complex materials and devices. Virus display systems, especially phage display, have been extensively used for evolving peptides and proteins capable of specific binding to a diverse range of biomacromolecules and inorganic materials. Recently life science approaches emerged using virus particles as substitute antibodies in diagnostic tools. To harvest the full potential in connecting virus display technology with materials, smart fluid handling approaches must be applied allowing to process high numbers of samples. This project is about combining droplet microfluidics, a technology dealing with monodisperse water in oil emulsion droplets, with phage display. The emulsion droplets represent isolated vessels with volumes in the pico- to nanoliter range and can be split, merged, incubated and sorted at high frequency. In addition, hydrogel matrixes will be applied. They serve as scaffold for phage immobilization and allow to transfer the sample from emulsion to an aqueous phase while retaining compartimentalization. The resulting gel beads will be designed as such that proteins can diffuse freely while the phages are immobilized in the matrix. The concept will be applied for directed evolution of enzymes and the development of novel diagnostic tools.
Wissenschaftliches Gebiet
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicsfluid mechanicsmicrofluidics
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologyvirology
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcomposites
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologygenetic engineering
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteins
Thema/Themen
Aufforderung zur Vorschlagseinreichung
FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF
Andere Projekte für diesen Aufruf anzeigen
Finanzierungsplan
MC-IEF - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)Koordinator
CB2 1TN Cambridge
Vereinigtes Königreich