Biomimetic Chemistry

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Biomimetic Chemistry Research Group School of
Chemistry THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
Dr. Pall Thordarson (Palli) Senior
Lecturer Chemistry UNSW
Tall Poppy NSW
What has Chemistry ever done for us and what
can Nanotechnology do for us?
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My background 1971 Born Vopnafjordur, Iceland,
grew up on a farm 1991 High School, Egilsstadir,
Iceland Natural Science stream 1995 BSc.
Chemistry University of Iceland,
Reykjavik 1996 Research worker Science
Institute Main project Polyunsaturated fatty
acids from cod liver oil 1997 Came to Australia,
PhD at the University of Sydney Main project
Self-replicating systems 2000 Volunteer at the
Olympics (including horse handler) 2001 PhD
Graduation, The University of Sydney 2001 Marie
Curie Fellow, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Main
project Mimicking DNA-enzymes 2003 Back to
Australia, The University of Sydney 2006
Australian Research Council Australian Research
Fellow 2007 Australian Citizen 2007 Senior
Lecturer UNSW 2008 NSW Tall Poppy Science Award
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What do I do now? (not much my co-workers do it
all!)
Light-driven bio-hybrids
My co-workers 4 BSc. Hons. students 4 PhD
Students 2 Post-doctoral Fellows 1 Research
Assistant
Self-assembled gels for drug delivery
Biomimetic Chemistry Research Group School of
Chemistry THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
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• What has Chemistry ever done for us
• and what can
• Nanotechnology do for us?
• What has Chemistry ever done for us
• Would you be alive without modern chemistry?

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Would you be alive without modern chemistry?
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Would you be alive without modern chemistry?
Artificial Fertiliser Ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3)
has it allowed up to 4 billion more people on
this planet?
World population 1900 2 Billion 2000 6
Billion NH4NO3 first made in ca.
1910 Coincidence?
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Chemistry has also had an enormous social impact
Norethisterone
Ethinylestradiol
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Chemistry has also had an enormous social impact
30 years later Chemists at the Drug company
Pfizer were looking for a new drug for high blood
pressure
Sildenafil
These scientists discovered some interesting
side-effects in male patients The marketing
people called it VIAGRA (the blue pill)
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• What has Chemistry ever done for us
• and what can
• Nanotechnology do for us?
• 2. So what can Nanotechnology do for us?
• What is Nanotechnology?

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What is Nanotechnology?
The science of very small things
This is not small, these are micro, not Nano
The making of useful devices or machines where in
at least one dimension the fabrication is
controlled in the nanometer scale
http//mems.sandia.gov/scripts/images.asp
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What is nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology
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The Scale in Meters
1021m 100,000 light years, roughly the size of
Milky Way 107m 10,000 km, we can see most of
the world

• 1025m
• 1 billion light years, the approximate range of
  universe observed by human being
• 1014m
• 100 billion km (or 0.1 Pm, Petametre) the
  complete orbit of planet Pluto

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The Scale in Meters
10 m we can see the players in the field
10-4m 100 mm we can see the cells in a
human body (17 mm)

• 103m
• 1 km
• we can see the arrangement of houses
• 10-2m
• 1 cm
• details of the skin

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The Scale in Meters
10-7m 100nm, we can see a strand of
DNA 10-10m 100 pm (pico), the size of an
atom surrounded by electron cloud

• 10-6m
• 1mm, clustering of chromosomes
• 10-9m
• 1nm, the molecular structure of DNA

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The Scale in Meter
10-14m 10fm, we can see the protons and
neutrons in the nucleus 10-16m 100 am
(atto), the quarks in details (10-19m)

• 10-13 m
• 100fm (femto), we can see the nucleus of an atom
  
• 10-15m
• 1fm, we can see the quarks which form the protons
  and neutrons

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WHY NANOTECHNOLOGY?
Nanotechnology has impacted us primarily in

• Information Technology
• Defense
• Health and Medicine
• Minerals/Chemical Processing
• Cosmetics

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WHY NANOTECHNOLOGY?

• Fundamentally new properties
• Exciting new mechanisms
• Strange and Fancy Size Dependent Behavior!!

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Colour of nanophase materials vary according
tothe size of their constituent grains,
orclusters.
All four vials above contain Cadmium Selenide.
But because these otherwise identical samples all
have different-size clusters, each takes on
different hue under white light (left) and
ultraviolet light (right).
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From Nature to Science

• The lotus leaf is considered sacred in Oriental
  religions for its ability to stay dry and clean.
  When water drops on the leaf, it beads up and
  rolls off the waxy surface, washing away dirt as
  it goes.

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• When a lotus leaf is examined under a
  high-powered microscope, it does not have the
  waxy, smooth surface that appears to the naked
  eye. Rather, it is bumpya characteristic that
  aids repelling water

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NanoPowders Its what you cant see

• Nanopowders are transparent to visible light.

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• Biomimetic Nanotechnology

• Cheap solar cells from nanocrystalline TiO2 to
  reduce greenhouse gas emission

(Electricity from the Sun)
TiO2 film
Porphyrin dye
Electrolyte with I-/I-3
Conducting glass
Biomimicry
Biomimetic Chemistry Research Group School of
Chemistry THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
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What do I do?
Light-driven bio-hybrids
Biomimetic Chemistry Research Group School of
Chemistry THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
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Nanotechnology in Medicine

• Tiny detectives this optical nanofiber can be
  used to study a particular cell without
  destroying it.

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Nanofiber gels and tissue engineering
Hydrophobic Hydrophilic
C18-GlyGlyGlyGlyAlaAlaAlaGluIleLysValAlaVal (C18-G
GGAAAAEIKVAV)
Growth promotor for neural cells (epitope)
G. A. Silva, C. Czeisler, K. L. Niece, E.
Beniash, D. A. Harrington, J. A. Kessler and S.
I. Stupp, Science, 2004, 303, 1352.
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Nanofiber gels and tissue engineering
G. A. Silva, C. Czeisler, K. L. Niece, E.
Beniash, D. A. Harrington, J. A. Kessler and S.
I. Stupp, Science, 2004, 303, 1352.
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Nanofiber gels and tissue engineering
Promotes neural regrowth in spinal injuries!
Movies
G. A. Silva, C. Czeisler, K. L. Niece, E.
Beniash, D. A. Harrington, J. A. Kessler and S.
I. Stupp, Science, 2004, 303, 1352.
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Self-assembled gels and Tissue Engineering Mimicki
ng the Extracellular Matrix (ECM)
The ECM controls cell-cell interactions and
growth Important for tissue regeneration, tumour
growth
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What do I do?
Self-assembled gels for drug delivery
Biomimetic Chemistry Research Group School of
Chemistry THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
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Thanks to My group Sabrina, Josh, Alex, Shiva,
Katie, Danny, David, Lip Son, Warren, Ski, Ben
and Alice for my work Australian Research
Council NSW Cancer Institute My wife for her
patience For giving me the opportunity to speak
to you Australian Institute of Policy
Science/The Tall Poppy Champaign And finally
YOU!