Designing Bio-Nano Materials through Modeling and Simulation

In recent years, the fast emerging field of bio-nano/bio-hybrid materials is seen to have great promise in diverse applications such as photovoltaics, bio-sensors and drug delivery vehicles. Creation of these materials from synthetic/ pre-assembled protein nanotube (or particles), with lipid, or polymer membranes, require approaches such as self-assembly and insertion of the synthetic moeity into the membrane. The transport selectivity is introduced by suitably functionalizing the nanotube. The nanotube is embedded in a low bending stiffness fluid environment such as a membrane. These approaches require a fundamental understanding of the interfacial properties resulting from the systems chemistry, and the mesoscopic properties of the membrane. Another class of bio-hybrid materials are granules or compacted blocks of bioactive powders which can be used as spacefillers and implant coatings. The properties of these materials depend upon the particle size, hardness and surface properties. In the poster, I will discuss the design and characterization of these materials.