Tag Archives: Dr. Hongbin Li

Biomimicry, proteins, muscles, and the University of British Columbia’s Dr. Hongbin Li

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This morning, I was excited to receive a news release about Dr. Hongbin Li’s recent work which has been published in Nature magazine. A Canada Research Chair in Molecular Nanoscience  and Protein Engineering at the University of British Columbia (Canada), Dr. Li’s work has been featured here before. (Part 1 and Part 2 of the interviews where he patiently answered my uninformed questions about his 2008 work on proteins where he had them behave like shock absorbers.) This latest work builds on his 2008 discoveries and extends them as he considers muscle elasticity.

From the news release,

University of British Columbia researchers have cast artificial proteins into a new solid biomaterial that very closely mimics the elasticity of muscle.

The approach, detailed in the current issue of the journal Nature, opens new avenues to creating solid biomaterials from smaller engineered proteins, and has potential applications in material sciences and tissue engineering.

“There are obvious long-term implications for tissue engineers,” says Hongbin Li, associate professor in the Dept. of Chemistry. “But at a fundamental level, we’ve learned that the mechanical properties we engineer into the individual proteins that make up this biomaterial can be translated into useful mechanical properties at the larger scale.”

The work will be published tomorrow “Designed biomaterials to mimic the mechanical properties of muscles” by Shanshan Lv, Daniel M. Dudek, Yi Cao, M. M. Balamurali, John Gosline, Hongbin Li in Nature 465, 69-73 (6 May 2010) doi:10.1038/nature09024 Letter.

Again from the news release,

The mechanical properties of these biomaterials can be fine-tuned, providing the opportunity to develop biomaterials that exhibit a wide range of useful properties – including mimicking different types of muscles. The material is also fully hydrated and biodegradable.

I wonder where are these ‘muscles’ going to appear? On robots?

Congratulations to Dr. Hongbin Li and your colleagues, Shanshan Lv, Daniel M. Dudek, Yi Cao, M. M. Balamurali, and John Gosline.

Nanotechnology and European NGOs; 2009 Nobel in Physics has Canadian connections; China’s nanotechnology roadmap; Canada Research Chair Hongbin Li

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Lately (as in this year), there’s been a lot of substantive interest in regulating nanotechnology:

  • the recent joint Transatlantic Regulatory project which brought together the London School of Economics, Chatham House, the Environmental Law Institute and the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) for a report and a series of presentations.  (I discussed the PEN presentation here.)
  • the recent announcement from the US Environmental Protection Agency about their new nanomaterials research which will presumably result in discussion about regulations. (I mentioned the announcement here.)
  • the January 2009 announcement by Environment Canada that they would be conducting a one time nanomaterials inventory. This type of announcement offers the distinct possibility that future regulation may be on the agenda. (I first discussed  this initiative in my Feb. 3, 2009, Feb. 4, 2009, and Feb.8, 2009 postings.)

Now a new group has issued a report, the European Environment Bureau (from the news item on Nanowerk),

The European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Europe’s largest federation of environmental citizens’ organisations, launched a report (“Nanotechnologies in the 21st Century – A Critical Review of Governance Issues in Europe and Elsewhere (October 09”)  outlining the critical governance structures needed for the safe development and use of nanotechnology.

You can read more here.

As I noted in my headline, the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physics has some Canadian connections. From the Fast Company article by Kit Eaton,

Half the prize went to Charles Kao for work that led to long-distance fiber-optic communications. Born in Shanghai, he was educated in the U.K. and worked in one of the early companies that became the current Nortel (emphasis mine). This is where he did research into the fiber-optic systems available at the time, which had been puzzling scientists and engineers by not nearing their theoretical efficiency, and remaining good only for short-distance signaling. Kao’s experiments proved the reason behind these inefficiencies was impurities in the glass making up the fibers–this effected the refractive index of the medium as well as how much light was wasted by scattering instead of being neatly piped down the fiber to the receiving electronics.

…

The other half of the prize was shared by Canadian (emphasis mine) Willard Boyle and American George Smith for their co-invention of the Charge-Coupled Device. This little optically-sensitive chip, with its neat shift-bit way of getting data from the individual light-sensitive pixels to the data pipe that connects the sensor to a computer, is basically the invention that made possible the whole field of digital photography.

If you have any interest in China’s science and technology scene, Springer and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have announced that they are publishing a series of reports, roadmaps for the next 40 years.  The first reports are out on Oct. 14, 2009 and there will be more in 2010. I see that one of the 2010 reports will be on nanotechnology. For more details, you can go here.

I almost missed the announcement that Dr. Hongbin Li at the University of British Columbia has received a Canada Research Chair in Molecular Nanoscience and Protein Engineering. Congratulations Dr. Li! I posted a two-part interview in 2008 that  Dr. Li kindly granted me here and here.

Nano, proteins, and Dr. Hongbin Li: part 2

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I had two more questions for Dr. Li concerning the work in his latest published paper, ‘Chameleon Nanomaterial Can Transform from Spring to Shock Absorber, Back Again’ (Nature Nanotechnology, online edition, June 29, 2008)

  1. What stimulus needs to be applied to get the protein to respond as a shock absorber? And, what stimulus for a ‘spring’ response?

Response: spring and shock absorber are two states of the protein materials we constructed. External stimulus, in this case the addition of antibody fragment, is the one to trigger the switch of the protein between the two states.

I wish I could ask Dr. Li more about this. I have a feeling I didn’t word the question clearly enough as I was trying to find out how this would work at the macro level. In fact,  my next and last question was the one where I was trying to find out how this would be applied in materials that I do or can encounter.

  1. You mention a specific application for your work in the Nanowerk article, hydrogels. Apparently they can be used in diapers and breast implants…I’m assuming that this is not what you have in mind. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I looked up hydrogels on Wikipedia and, while there were other applications, I thought these two were the funniest when thinking about shock absorbers and springs.) More seriously, do you have another hydrogel example or possibly another application?

Response: there are many more applications than the two you mentioned. Actually the two applications you mentions do not necessarily require hydrogels. Hydrogel can be used in applications ranging from drug delivery, synthetic extracellular matrix to smart materials.

A diaper that springs amuses me and I still don’t see a real life application. I guess I need more specificity, ‘drug delivery’ is too general for me. The Nanowerk article I’m to referring in my question is here.

Dr. Li is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of British Columbia and he is a  Canada Research Chair in Molecular Nanoscience and Protein Engineering. He co-authored the paper with  Chemistry graduate student, Yi Cao.

Nano, proteins, and Dr. Hongbin Li: part 1

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Here’s the interview I mentioned a few days ago. I now have the answers to some questions I sent Dr. Hongbin Li (University of British Columbia) about the work he recently had published in Nature Nanotechnology (June 29, 2008 online edition). (Note: I don’t usually give links to articles behind paywalls as a lot of people won’t have access.)

Short version: Dr. Li and his team have taken a protein G and attached the fragment of an antibody to one of the protein’s binding sites with the consequence that the protein can act as either a spring or a shock absorber. They’re calling it a ‘chameleon’ nanomaterial. You can read more about it here at UBC Science or here at Nanowerk.

Dr. Li kindly took the time to answer my questions before he leaves for China this Thursday (July 10, 2008). I don’t understand the details of Dr. Li’s work very well and so my questions were largely for clarification. He’s working with a  protein G and I’ve come across G proteins in some literature research I was doing on morphine, and opioid receptors. So, my first question and Dr. Li’s response was  this:

  1. There is a super family of G proteins made up of many subsets. You have used one of these G proteins adhering an antibody fragment at one of its receptor sites. Is this more or less correct?

Response: the protein GB1 we are using has nothing to do with G proteins! GB1 is from protein G, which is a bacterial surface protein and its biological function is not known. Protein G has been widely used for purifying IgG antibodies.

I shouldn’t be surprised to find out that somebody thought it would a good idea to give two different proteins identical names simply reversing the order in which the qualifier is applied with the consequence that there’s a G protein and a protein G  They do that in French where some adjectives change their meaning based on the placement either before or after the noun (but I digress).

The next question had to do with the antibody:

  1. Is an antibody fragment what it sounds like? (i.e. It’s an antibody that’s been sliced up and you are using a fragment.)

Response: IgG antibody can be digested into fragments by proteases. For example, IgG antibody can be digested into Fc fragment and Fab fragment. We used Fc fragment in our study.

I was thinking that the antibody was being broken into fragments by some sort of mechanical process but this sounds like a biological process.

My final question in today’s posting:

  1. I’ve seen the terms ‘synthetic protein’ and ‘mutant protein’ in the various articles about your work. Do you have a preference for one of these terms over the other? And why?

Response: depending on different context, our engineered protein can be called as either synthetic protein or mutant protein. Mutant protein refers to the fact that GT18P and GV54P are mutants of GB1.

Part 2 tomorrow and thank you Dr. Hongbin Li.

Nano flash: when is a shock absorber also a spring?

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Just got this info…Dr. Hongbin Li, a researcher at the University of British Columbia (UBC), is about to have his study about a nanomaterial that combines the characteristics of a shock absorber and the characteristics of a spring so it can t transform back and forth between the two published. It will be in Nature Nanotechnology this week. ‘Chameleon Nanomaterial Can Transform from Spring to Shock Absorber, Back Again’, a preview writeup with more details is available here. Oh, I may be able to get an interview with Dr. Li. Stay tuned.