Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 32000, Israel.
Adv Sci (Weinh). 2023 Dec;10(36):e2306862. doi: 10.1002/advs.202306862. Epub 2023 Nov 22.
Despite the significant progress in protein-based materials, creating a tunable protein-activated hydrogel lens remains an elusive goal. This study leverages the synergistic relationship between protein structural dynamics and polymer hydrogel engineering to introduce a highly transparent protein-polymer actuator. By incorporating bovine serum albumin into polyethyleneglycol diacrylate hydrogels, the authors achieved enhanced light transmittance and conferred actuating capabilities to the hydrogel. Taking advantage of these features, a bilayer protein-driven hydrogel lens that dynamically modifies its focal length in response to pH changes, mimicking the adaptability of the human lens, is fabricated. The lens demonstrates durability and reproducibility, highlighting its potential for repetitive applications. This integration of protein-diverse biochemistry, folding nanomechanics, and polymer engineering opens up new avenues for harnessing the wide range of proteins to potentially propel various fields such as diagnostics, lab-on-chip, and deep-tissue bio-optics, advancing the understanding of incorporating biomaterials in the optical field.
尽管在基于蛋白质的材料方面取得了重大进展，但创建可调节的蛋白质激活水凝胶透镜仍然是一个难以实现的目标。本研究利用蛋白质结构动力学和聚合物水凝胶工程之间的协同关系，引入了一种高度透明的蛋白质-聚合物驱动器。通过将牛血清白蛋白纳入聚乙二醇二丙烯酸酯水凝胶中，作者实现了增强的光透过率，并赋予了水凝胶致动能力。利用这些特性，制造了一种双层蛋白质驱动的水凝胶透镜，该透镜可以根据 pH 值的变化动态地改变其焦距，模拟人眼晶状体的适应性。该透镜具有耐用性和可重复性，突出了其在重复应用中的潜力。这种将蛋白质多样性生物化学、折叠纳米力学和聚合物工程相结合的方法为利用广泛的蛋白质开辟了新途径，可能推动诊断学、芯片实验室和深部组织生物光学等各个领域的发展，推进了在光学领域中使用生物材料的理解。
