Date:
Thursday, August 27, 2026 - 10:00am
Location:
Elings Hall 1601 | Zoom: https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/2879809950?omn=88000458589
Speaker:
Hosu Gwak
Abstract:
Membrane proteins perform highly efficient and selective functions in signal transduction, energy conversion, and the transport of ions and molecules, which are difficult to achieve in synthetic systems, motivating their integration into synthetic solid-state materials for applications in energy conversion, sensing, and separation. However, harnessing these functions outside the cell membrane requires a host that simultaneously stabilizes the membrane protein’s amphiphilic transmembrane architecture and provides the mechanical robustness, thermal stability, and processability needed for device integration, requirements not met by wholly organic-based hosts, such as lipid bilayers and block copolymers, or by purely inorganic silica. During the PhD, I established design principles for mesostructured silica-surfactant host materials for incorporating membrane proteins, in which amphiphilic structure-directing surfactants co-assemble with hydrolyzed silica precursors into ordered mesophases that combine a native-like amphiphilic environment with a mechanically robust, thermally stable inorganic framework. Using proteorhodopsin (PR), a light-activated H+ pump, and aquaporin Z (AqpZ), a bacterial water-channel protein, as model transmembrane proteins, synthesis, multi-length-scale structural characterization, functional assessment, and macroscopic material properties are correlated to establish how material composition and synthetic conditions govern the atomic-level protein dynamics, mesoscale structure, macroscopic orientational order, and transport function of these hybrid materials.
Event Type:
General Event
