Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Nanomaterial Interactions with Biological Systems
EMSL Project ID
51174
Abstract
This proposal covers research conducted with funding from several agencies, including NIEHS and the NSF-funded Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology. Accumulating observations demonstrate the potential of airborne engineered nanoparticles (NPs) to induce adverse effects in vivo and in vitro, but a great deal of confusion still exists about the properties that make a particle toxic or biocompatible. Distinct physical and chemical properties of the NP engage and activate distinct proteins and cellular pathways that, in turn, govern the fate of the NP and its impact on the cell and ultimately on human health. The relationships between particle properties and these key cellular processes and response are far from being understood. One of the challenges in acquiring molecular level understanding of NP internalization, interactions and impact in living cells is the need to gain access to these processes with high spatial resolution and chemical selectivity. Gaining such access in live cells will further enable interrogations of dynamic processes over time. Thus, one of our goals is to address this challenge by establishing super resolution and atomic force microscopy in intact or live eukaryotic cells to gain nano-scale insights to the initial processes that occur as nanoparticles land on the cell surface. These approaches allows the detection of fluorescence-tagged proteins and molecular complexes to better understand the molecular events at the cell surface, as well as the following processes and interactions inside the cell. This project will directly address the need to identify molecular processes that NPs induce in model cell types representative of the biological diversity in the environment using state-of the-art microscopy. The ultimate goal of this project is to gain a mechanistic understanding of the relationships between distinct NP properties and the molecular interactions and cellular processes that they elicit to better understand what makes a NP toxic or biocompatible.
Project Details
Start Date
2019-10-01
End Date
2022-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator