Assembly of biological building blocks for nano- and micro-fabrication of materials

Abstract

Experimental studies were performed to fabricate various material structures using genetically engineered M13 bacteriophage. This virus template showed superior controls of material syntheses from nanoscale to microscale. Structures including nanowires, nanoparticle arrays, hetero-particle arrays, and micro-fibers were fabricated using the engineered MI3 virus as the building block and mineralization platform. The mineralization mechanisms were revealed by alternating the types and amounts of peptide motifs displayed on the viral templates. The results showed the importance of a fused peptide motif to mediate the mineralization process of a material, which was dominated by either physical absorption or chemical nucleation. The potential applications of the materials synthesized using the viral template, including energy generation and biosensors, were also demonstrated. For the first time, several types of highly engineered MI 3 virus were used to fabricate nanostructures such as nanowires, nano-arrays, hetero-particle arrays, and complex nanowires. A type 8 phage library was reported to screen peptide motifs for making nanowires. A multi-functionalized viral template, type 8-3 virus, was engineered and demonstrated to create a variety of nano-archietetures. A type 8+8 virus was used to create complex nanowires embedded with different materials. In addition, the mechanical properties of virus-based materials were evaluated and characterized for the first time. The tunable functionalities and mechanical performances of virus-based materials showed promising capabilities not only to manipulate material syntheses and structures but also to be integrated with other synthetic materials using current processing techniques.